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Terry Lovelady compared a visit to Cecil's Cafe near 50th and Dodge Streets to stepping into “The Twilight Zone.”
“It's like walking back into the 1940s,” the restaurant's former fry cook said Sunday. “People are really going to miss this little old diner with its honest to God homemade food.”
Lovelady, 67, retired a year ago but returned to Cecil's Cafe for one last shift. After a nearly 50-year run in its current Dundee digs, the family-run eatery Sunday served its last Betty Jean Omelet and closed its grill for good.
Cecil Wilson originally opened the cafe in 1939 in downtown Omaha. He moved it to the Dundee location about 20 years later, and after his death, Delores “Dee” Daschle took over the operation.
Daschle turned over the cafe to her sister, Shirley McGinnis, who then operated Cecil's with her husband, Mike, for the past two decades. Now the McGinnises are retiring and have put the property up for sale.
Shirley McGinnis, 73, said her husband stopped working about a year ago after he lost his leg as the result of an infection. She wants to be close to him at their Council Bluffs home.
“I never intended to stay this long,” McGinnis said. “My sister asked me to help out for two days 20 years ago, and I've been here ever since.”
McGinnis' daughter, Michelle Thompson, and her three granddaughters also worked at the 32-seat diner, which served breakfast and lunch.
Cecil's was so cozy that waitresses took orders from customers without stepping from behind the counter. The cooks, just a few feet away, would crack the requisite number of eggs before the ticket was even written.
Customers came from all walks of life.
“We'd get lawyers sitting next to plumbers sitting next to doctors and teachers,” Lovelady said. “You get very personal in this little place, and you really get to know about people's lives.”
Each patron had a favorite dish, but all agreed that they'd miss the home-fried potatoes and thick-sliced bacon.
Don Lovelady, 69, went to Cecil's even before his brother Terry started cooking there.
He said the doctor later restricted his breakfasts to cereal, but he would sneak in every now and then for the bacon. “It is so good and so thick.”
Mike Taylor, a North Carolina transplant, dined at Cecil's for 23 years. Because of him, Shirley McGinnis began stocking grits.
“Lots of butter, lots of salt, and she never burned them,” Taylor said.
The diner's signature breakfast was the Betty Jean Omelet, named for a retired ballet teacher who asked for an omelet “with all the garbage.” It included three eggs, green pepper, onion, tomatoes, bacon, sausage, cheese and home-fried potatoes.
“The first time Betty Jean ordered that omelet it was about closing time (2 p.m.), and she was still eating it at 4 p.m.,” Shirley McGinnis said. “I just sat there and watched her eat every bite.”
Shirley McGinnis had a reputation for keeping the cafe open beyond normal closing hours for regulars and special occasions.
“They have Thanksgiving dinners for people who have nowhere to go,” said Connie Scarpello. “They even keep the place open for people to watch things like the Olympics on TV.”
Scarpello came Sunday bearing gifts.
She gave Shirley McGinnis a photo album containing pictures of many of the regular customers, most of whom also scribbled notes.
Marilyn Hansen told McGinnis she appreciated her friendship and how she “nurtured” each soul who walk through the diner's doors.
“You praise and encourage, console and tease — and send them out to face the world a little more loved.”
Contact the writer:
444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com
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