Restaurants are popping up at such a dizzying pace on Merivale Road, south of Carling Avenue, that we can barely keep up. That said, there are some eateries in the neighbourhood that have withstood the test of time. We recently took a trip down Merivale Road—and memory lane—to pay homage to one such spot.

Mellos Coffee Shop has operated out of a strip mall on Merivale Road near the recently closed Dairy Queen for around 60 years. This unfussy joint has served classic North American breakfast fare at doggedly cheap prices and has had a loyal clientele that will beat the morning rush hour to get their fill of bacon, eggs coffee and that old-time charm only diners of yore can provide.

I arrived just in time to see the place start to fill up, around 8:30 a.m. I took a booth at the back and was promptly served coffee. There were a few old-timers seated in the booths nearby. I ordered a vegetarian omelette with no tomatoes, brown bread and house fries.

My omelette arrived in under 10 minutes with plenty of tomatoes. Understanding the unwritten rules of such an establishment, I smiled and tucked in without complaint. Unless you have a dietary restriction—I just happen to dislike the skin of tomatoes in my omelette—you let the chef do their thing. That’s part of the charm.

I gobbled up my omelette and the heavily buttered and still-warm toast. The house-fries were the highlight; salty and lightly spiced, I enjoyed eating the potatoes while listening to elderly couples chatting over the soft music wafting from the radio. While the world may be a very different place compared to when the diner opened in the 1950s, not a lot has changed inside.

Much to my surprise, the bill came to a total of just under $10. That’s it. It’s extra remarkable when you think about how everything has become more expensive recently. Even prices seemed to have remained unchanged at Mellos.

As I headed outside to take a photo of the restaurant’s facade for this article, I waved at one of the old-timers as he got into his old Pontiac convertible, smiled and drove off.