John's XLNT Foods
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John's XLNT Foods stays excellent as it changes
By Jim Aquino
With the holiday season in fun swing, John's XLNT Foods Manager Chris Kouretas says he hopes the influx of shoppers to downtown Willow Glen will boost business for the venerable Greek/Italian/American family restaurant during dinnertime.
"Dinner's been down a lot lately since Sept. 11," Chris says. "Even before that, it was down. But now, it's down a lot more."
Business during dinner has dropped 10 percent, according to Chris' father, John, who owns the restaurant. But otherwise, for the rest of the day, business at John's is solid.
Chris says customers like coming to John's because of the freshness of the food, and they get the opportunity to try dishes they can't really find anywhere else, like the gyro sandwich, Greek egg lemon soup, moussaka (Greek casseroles) and dolmades (grapevine leaves stuffed with rice, meat and other seasonings). John's also offers Italian dishes, including chicken parmigiana and sauteed veal marsala.
One of the oldest restaurants in Willow Glen, John's opened in 1976. John, who emigrated from Olympia, Greece, had worked as a busboy and cook in Salinas and San Jose, and he and his brother Pete decided to launch their own restaurant. The brothers bought Mike's XLNT Foods on Lincoln Avenue and turned it into John's.
According to John, the "XLNT" in the restaurant's name, a shortening of the word “excellent," was intended as a response to an old rival restaurant on Willow Street, Ed's Fine Foods.
"Ed's was the king of the Willow Glen," John says in his thick Greek accent.
John says that when he opened his restaurant, Lincoln Avenue was much different from what it looks like today.
"It was all buildings, no trees," John says. "A lot of old people."
Chris, who started working at his father's business as a busboy when he was 16 and then became manager of John's in 1998, says the restaurant attracted an older crowd for a long time because most Willow Glen residents were seniors.
"And then with the dot-com boom, a lot of younger people moved into some of the homes out here, so we started getting a younger crowd," Chris says.
The interior of John's has also evolved over the years.
"There used to be red velour wallpaper with gold tablecloths, like a cross between a truck stop and a '50S diner," Chris says. "It was really loud. "
One major addition to the interior was a trompe l'oeil mural of a Greek village overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, which the Kouretases painted about seven years ago. In a 1996 Metro article, reviewer Broos Campbell wrote that the painting was one of several touches that showed that John's was "no slop-the-hog sand-move-'em-out type of joint. "
But according to Chris, one thing has remained constant: the quality of the food.
"People who have been coming in for years bring their kids, and now, their kids are bringing their children, so we have second- and third-generation customers here," Chris says. "If they're brave enough to try something different, we have it here."
John's XLNT
John's Excellent Adventure
Lincoln Avenue eatery serves up Greek specials with American coffee shop ambiance
By Broos Campbell
John's XLNT Foods is a throwback to how we think restaurants used to be: good food, lots of it, low price. The emphasis is on robust grill cookery, with a wide assortment of American, Italian and Greek dishes to choose from. Dinners include soup, salad, a hunk of flesh, mixed vegetables, potatoes or rice, bread and butter, and dessert. The with-meal desserts consist of various puddings, Jell-O, ice cream or sherbet, usually.
But John's is no slop-the-hogs-and-move-'em-out type of joint. The pleasant, airy dining room features a trompe l'oeil view of the Mediterranean, a wall of windows letting in plenty of light, and an outdoor dining area that offers ringside seats for people watching on downtown Willow Glen's Lincoln Avenue. (On a recent frosty evening, a party from Minnesota elected to dine alfresco to enjoy the "balmy" California air.)
On the Greek side of the menu, try the gyros sandwich with fries (marinated beef with tomato and lettuce on pita bread with yogurt-cucumber sauce, $5.25); the lemon-marinated baked chicken riganati (with plenty of crispy-chewy skin, $8.85); the Greek mezze lunch (dolmades, keftethes, feta cheese, olives, tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs; $6.50 for one, $11.25 for two); makaronada (Greek-style macaroni in brown butter with Mizithra cheese, $8.65); or our favorite lamb chop (don't be misled by the singular "chop"--it's a much larger portion than one might expect, with oregano and lemon-oil sauce, $9.95). The Greek-flavored but all-American grill offerings include the 1 Q-ounce "Xlnt steak" (with sauteed mushrooms, $9.75), veal scaloppine ($9.25), burgers and deli sandwiches.
There's nothing overly fancy here, but that's just the way a family restaurant ought to be. The only surprise is just how far a dollar can go these days.
John's in Willow Glen remains XLNT
Sheila Himmel
Published: Friday, Aprfll1, 1997
John's XLNT Foods In Willow Glen was Mike's XLNT when John Kouretas bought it nearly 23 years ago. And XLNT it still is.
This friendly neighborhood restaurant, which last year added a patio so that seating now comes close to 100, is zoned for comfort. The food is solid, the portions generous, and the service cheerful.
Given Kouretas' predilection for pleasing people, it is no surprise that the remodel included a wall of trompe l'oeil arches, framing not the Adriatic, the Aegean or even the Ionian seas, but the Mediterranean, a sea shared by many more countries. Given the menu’s Greco-Roman focus, though, the actual islands pictured are Hydra and Capri.
Mediterranean flair
On the opposite wall, mirrors reflect the Mediterranean. There are booths on one side of the divided space, tables on the other, even a small counter for schmoozers. Tables are nicely distanced, which was important the night we visited, when a toddler left a mess of projectile food items on the floor and one of the bus people had to dust-vac it up.
Kouretas is the chef, and his Greek lemon soup is very good, with notable pieces of tender chicken and a solid chicken stock base. Minestrone is thick, but not as well stocked. A la Carte, soup is $1.95 a cup, $3.25 a bowl.
But dinner comes with soup and salad, a good-size helping of romaine (now selling for $1.69 a pound) with color accents of red cabbage. The house vinaigrette could be less generously poured.
Dinners are distinctive of their native land, not fused as is so often done now. The Makaronda, excellent Greek pasta in a huge bowl ($8.65), is nicely balanced in browned butter and tangy Mizithra cheese.
Fettuccine Alfredo ($8.75) is bland, yet satisfying.
From the steaks, chops & chicken section, we chose Three Broiled Lamb Chops with mint jelly ($9.75). These were three hefty chops, cooked perfectly, with a hint of lemon. The accompanying rice pilaf with fresh chopped tomatoes also was excellent. The only misfire on this plate were slightly overdone green beans.
The combination seafood ($10.25) of deep-fried prawns, scallops and "scallone" (an impression of scallops and abalone), also is very good.
The only hitch in service involved wine, which clearly is not a focal point of most of the clientele. Still, someone could have asked if we wanted more wine, as we'd polished off the Ivan Tamas chardonnay ($4 a glass) long before dinner.
Desserts, also included in the dinner price, are comfort classics: custard, bread pudding, rice pudding sherbet and ice cream.
Getting his start
John Kouretas' native Peloponnesus may ring some history bells as a war between Athens and Sparta and may have something to do with his United Nations approach to food. Arriving in the United States in 1970, he started as a dishwasher in restaurants around the Bay Area. He watched the chefs, got cookbooks, copied, fixed, and improvised.
The Willow Glen neighborhood was fairly Italian at the time, and, Kouretas says, "Greeks like pasta, too." Thus the Greco-Roman menu.
Much of the Kouretas family works at John's XLNT, including the chef's wife, son, brother-in-law, brother and brother's son. Over the years, staff turnover has been slight, among non-family members as well.
For breakfast, John's has the usual coffee shop fare plus specials including the Willow Glen Scramble (eggs with mushrooms, bacon, sausage and tomatoes).
John's XLNT Foods, 1238 Lincoln Avenue in San Jose, CA, is open Monday - Wednesday, 7 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., Thursday - Saturday, 7 a.m. - 9 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
For more information, call (408) 998-1440.
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