Northside Diner, new Washington restaurant, will bring comfort food to modern palates

A building that once housed a beloved Washington restaurant will once again see diners lined up at the soda fountain and nestled in booths. Northside Diner is set to open its doors at 106 W. Main St., taking over the previous site of Winga’s Cafe, which had remained empty for 18 years. Co-owners Isabella and Ed Santoro bought the restaurant in 2020 and have spent the past several years pouring sweat equity into the building, restoring it as close as possible to its original state. During the renovation process, Mr. Santoro uncovered a skylight, unbricked windows, and stripped approximately eight layers of flooring, while recycling and reusing materials to construct other parts of the restaurant. “I reused essentially anything that I could,” he said, “any sort of appliance or, you know, hardware, anything that I could reuse, I did.” The road to restaurant renovation wasn’t a linear one for the Santoros. Ms. Santoro was born and raised in Italy, moving to the states her senior year of high school when her mom, a Washington native, decided to return to her hometown. Ms. Santoro majored in international relations at the University of Iowa and moved to New York City after graduating, but returned after a couple of years to help her mom manage Dodici’s Cafe, a popular dining establishment in Washington. Mr. Santoro helped with the restaurant as well, after working previously with flat roofing and building pole barns. “I’m glad I did the New York City thing when I was young and you could put up with that,” Ms. Santoro said. “Since moving back, I just absolutely fell in love with the town and the pace of life and the people.”

Breathing new life into old building

Through her involvement as a volunteer on the Washington Hotel/Motel Tax Fund Administration Committee, Ms. Santoro learned from surveys that many residents wanted more dining options in town. “For years and years, we've walked past Winga’s countless times and thought ‘okay, somebody really needs to do something with this,’” she said. The Wingas gave their blessing to the Santoros to purchase the building, who named it Northside Diner as a nod to the restaurant that came before Winga’s, Northside Cafe. The rights to Northside Cafe’s name belong to a former restaurant in Winterset, so the Santoros settled on “Diner” instead. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on the 96th anniversary of Winga’s Cafe opening, April 18, 1928. Members of the community flocked to the diner to celebrate, including some of the Winga family. The Southeast Iowa Union reported that Carol Winga, a former co-owner and the daughter of the original cafe’s founders, expressed happiness with the building’s renovation at the ceremony. "I think it’s just fantastic, what you have done,“ she said. ”It means so much to me, and my family, it’s wonderful," she said, in a quote from the newspaper. Currently, the plan is to open the doors to the public in approximately two to three weeks, pending completion of the staff roster. Operating hours will be from 7 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, featuring a breakfast and all-day menu, with a dinner-only service available from 5-8 p.m. On Fridays and Saturdays, the atmosphere will shift to a bar setting, offering a limited food menu until midnight. “It’s a place where obviously it's a nice ambience, but you don't feel like you have to get dressed up to go there or leave the kids at home. We have great accent lighting, and the vibe for a bar that I think (is for) really every generation, but I'm really picturing millennials, older millennials, really enjoying it,” said Ms. Santoro. “I wanted a place where you could go hang out with friends without a bunch of TVs and without music that was way too loud,” said Mr. Santoro.

Menu will offer healthy options as well as classics

The menu hasn't been unveiled yet, but will offer a mix of healthy options and comfort food, the Santoros said. Described as “classic American comfort foods while also catering to modern palates and diets,” Northside Diner’s menu will feature items such as hot beef sandwiches, smash burgers, chicken pot pie, fish and chips, low-carb, high protein salads, pie and ice cream. The full bar will serve wine, beer, and kombucha on tap. “We get a lot of requests for maybe low carb things or healthier options, things you can't find in a lot of other places in town. Of course, people also crave those comfort foods,” said Ms. Santoro. “We try to offer all kinds of other things too, so that everyone feels like they can come in and find something they enjoy.” The Santoros will also be partnering with local agribusinesses to supply some of their products – Marek Land & Livestock for their beef, and Farmer Grade for their pork. As time draws closer for opening day, the Santoros reflect on the journey thus far. “I hope people like it. I feel like an author who's published their first book and they're super nervous about, you know, putting it out into the world,” said Ms. Santoro. “It's been a journey and it will continue obviously, but I think the real moral of the story is don't give up, don't stop. Just keep pushing forward,” said Mr. Santoro.