Editor’s note: From Oct. 1-8, we’ll be featuring the each of the winners from the eight categories of the Owensboro Times Eat Down the Street Competition. The championship week of the voting competition will begin Oct. 11, when eight finalists will face off for the title of the overall favorite local restaurant. Today, we feature Dee’s Diner, which was voted as the favorite local Diner/Deli restaurant.
Dee’s Diner has become a mainstay in Owensboro after serving what many in the community consider the best breakfast. Combined with top-notch service over their years, it lead them to being voted the Best Diner/Deli by local residents.
When asked why he thinks the diner is such a staple and unique to the city, owner Kenneth Harper said plainly, “I really don’t know.”
“I don’t see what I do as anything special. I don’t really see myself as any different than any other diner. I just put my work shoes on — like everybody else — and I just try to do my best,” Harper said.
Harper said the award is humbling for him. He took over the family business in early 2019. Around the first anniversary of being in that position, he suddenly had to adapt to the pandemic — and it was a struggle.
He said balancing everything was a “roller coaster” and he saw a strain on his personal life and family, but seeing the way the community supported Dee’s Diner throughout the year was “astonishing.”
He saw the drive-thru, call-in orders and take-out business increase dramatically even as the crew was short. The customers he received were increasingly patient and understanding of the changes the diner was going through.
At his core, Harper said he does what he does to make people happy, especially through breakfast — because to him that is the most important meal of the day.
Over the time of the diner being in his family, Harper never saw it getting to the place it is at today.
“I never once in a million years would have thought that this place would have ever been as important to people, or just as popular as it is,” Harper said. “I am eternally thankful for everybody that walks through my doors.”
