If you’re looking for a post-drinking hangout spot, a good meal at a reasonable price, or the best milkshake you’ve ever paid more than $5 for, Zak’s Diner in the Byward Market is the place to go.
Established in 1986, Zak’s Diner has been a long-time favourite for many visiting the Byward Market. The ’50s-style diner has an old-school feel to it and hanging from the ceiling on string and wooden clothespins are children’s crayon drawings.
The walls in Zak’s are covered with mirrors and vintage framed posters, and the turquoise vinyl booths with pale pink trim are effortlessly reminiscent of the ’50s.
“The pictures on the wall- there’s little drawings of all of us, it’s really cute,” says Hannah Cencig, 19, a server at Zak’s.
The music playing in the diner is far more modern than the restaurant feels. It is a combination of remixed dance music, indie rock and upbeat pop.
Jukeboxes in some of the booths can override the contemporary tunes, and feature old favourites that the customers can choose themselves.
Cencig explains that the music playing in the restaurant is not just regular diner music during the day or night.
“Otherwise from [the jukeboxes] we have satellite, and we just choose a ’50s or ’60s station,” Cenig says. “Daytime is a lot more ’60s, a lot more classic-diner feel, and nighttime is anything from ’90s rock to Zeppelin.”
Cencig says the range music creates a different atmosphere in the restaurant.
“The overnight manager actually likes to put really slow music on overnights, because she’s noticed that if the music’s quiet and really calm, the people in the restaurant are way more calm,” Cencig says.
“If we were to play anything rock ’n’ roll, anything metal, it’s crazy in here,” Cencig says. “It’s amazing how subconsciously people pick up on the music that’s playing, and everybody can feel music, and it just comes out of you like that.”
Zak’s is open 24 hours a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and customers are in and out at all hours.
“We’re busy on the overnight on the weekends, definitely,” says Kim Nowickyj, another server. “This Halloween, our busiest time was the overnight, not even the morning or dinner.”
Cencig says that the overnights on Friday and Saturday are the more hectic and rambunctious shifts to take.
“It’s really, really quiet until 2 a.m. when the alcohol stops being served at bars around, and then it fills up,” Cencig says.
“Everybody’s drunk on an overnight, so it’s crazy, and there’s stuff that happens sometimes there’s fights, sometimes there’s dine-and-dashes, but the managers who’s on overnights have been overnight managers for a long time and they know exactly what to do and how to deal with it,” Cencig says.
Cencig says despite the craziness, the Friday and Saturday overnights aren’t that bad to work.
“It’s fun, actually. Once you get used to it and you realize it’s really not as stressful as it seems. It’s fun,” Cencig says.
Cencig has worked at Zak’s for three years, and works at other restaurants for the same owner. The reason why she says she keeps coming back is the atmosphere created by the staff that work there.
“We’re here for the people, not the money, and I think that’s what makes it stand out too, is that the people love the staff here,” Cencig says.
She says she has a close relationship with her manager.
“Kate, who’s the floor general manager, she’s not even 30 yet, but she’s been here for 11 years, and she’s amazing to work for,” Cencig says.
“I’ve never worked somewhere before where the managers are willing to help you out on a personal level, she actually did my prom hair,” Cencig says. “That’s the kind of person she is, and that’s our general manager, so it really reflects on the restaurant.”
Nowikyj says at Zak’s, there is no set script for the servers and she likes that she can be herself.
Cencig says that Zak’s “has a character and a vibe to it” that keeps customers coming back for more.
“That’s why we have regulars, who have been coming here every single week for ten years,” Cencig says. “That’s why we have families, and kids are now bussers here, and they were kids when their parents started coming in.”