“We’re telling everyone who comes in, ‘Welcome back and welcome home,’” Rodriguez said.
A classic diner in the commercial heart of Comstock, Nikos opened decades ago as Dotty’s. Grafos bought it in 1980; 15 years later, in 1995, he changed the name to Niko’s Express.
Rodriguez is keeping the diner’s name and the menu is basically the same, he said. There are still five-egg omelets, homemade soups, various sandwiches and wraps, along with daily specials. It’s essentially the same staff, with the addition of Rodriguez’s 20-year-old daughter, Macaela, who is running the front of the house and “loves it.”
“If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, right?” Rodriguez said.
“The changes are very, very small,” he added. “We’re still Niko’s Express. We still have all the same specials. You have to remember that I worked for (Grafos) for 11 years, so I’m the one who made all the soups. I made the lunch specials. So everything that I did before is the same.”
