Jim-Denny’s Diner lives. Don’t stick a fork in it quite yet, it’s not done.

First the news: Jim-Denny’s diner, one of the oldest eating establishments in Sacramento, is not dead after all.

The 700-square foot white hut with the classic neon sign on 12th street between H and I streets is set to close Feb. 2, per the recent announcement from the family who runs the diner. But the family who owns the property upon which the restaurant has operated since 1945 told me that any Jim-Denny’s eulogies are premature.

“Jim-Denny’s is not dead. It’s going to come back, “ said Tom Naygrow, who owns the lot where Jim-Denny’s is and the building next door.

“I love that little building and its not going to go away,” he said.

While a spate of restaurant closings in Sacramento have been blamed on a rising minimum wage, rising downtown rents, rising operating costs, and any number of real or perceived economic headwinds, this particular story is different. As it turns out, this story proves the old axiom that love and business don’t mix.

Opinion

The operators of Jim-Denny’s and their landlords are not blood relatives but they have been linked in a family type business arrangement that simply ran its course. Like all breakups, hard feelings are jumbled together with love and nostalgia.

There is nothing left to do now but go their separate ways. But the Jim-Denny’s building and its neon sign are historic sites in the city and cannot be modified or demolished without the OK of city officials, said Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen.

Remake the restaurant

The Naygrow family has owned the Jim-Denny’s property since 2011. If you are not familiar with the Naygrow name, then you are probably under the age of 45 or have not lived in Sacramento for more than 30 years.

But back in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, the Naygrows owned the Sierra Spring Water Co. They had the bottled water businesses in several states and ran a multi-million dollar business from Sacramento for decades before selling it. Tom’s father, Ritz Naygrow, is still feisty at 99, and was also a Sacramento City Councilmen in the 1970s

Tom Naygrow said he has interest from other restaurant operators who are keen on running an eatery in the classic Jim-Denny’s building once it has been vacated by the present operators.

Naygrow wants to preserve the classic building and neon sign just as it is. But the way Jim-Denny’s is run must change, Naygrow said. Until word spread that old place was closing, and people began lining up to belly up to the counter and eat there again, business at the old diner had been decimated.

The operators of the restaurant attributed the hard times to the temporary closure of the nearby Sacramento Convention Center while its being renovated.

“We’ve lost about 70 percent of our business,” said Danielle McCune, who has co-owned Jim-Denny’s with her husband for a decade.

But long before McCune and her family announced they were closing, Naygrow said he had become convinced that Jim-Denny’s couldn’t work without a radical remake. It needed owners who had the financial might to re-imagine Jim-Denny’s. While praising them as people, Naygrow said the current Jim-Denny’s operators struggled to pay their rent and and property taxes.

On Wednesday, Naygrow said he had served them with notice that they had to pay their rent. “They are wonderful people,” Nagrow said. “But it just didn’t work out.”

Last week, McCune told me that their rent was going to double from $2,000 to $4,000 a month and they couldn’t afford that. Naygrow acknowledged that the rent had to go up in the current market. But he produced records that showed how he had kept the rent at around $2,000 since 2011.

Also, Naygrow said he sold the restaurant business to McCune’s family for $1 back in 2011.

Why? Naygrow said McCune’s mother-in-law was in a relationship with Ritz, the elder Naygrow. It was a family type of deal driven by love and nostalgia.

Does he regret that now? “Yes,” Naygrow said. But he said it’s time to face reality: The relationship that inspired this Jim-Denny’s family business deal ended and, now, so has the restaurant business with the current operators.

Hoist beer at the diner?

Given the attention restaurant closings have received in Sacramento, it’s important to know the Jim-Denny’s story if only to challenge conventional wisdom that a rising minimum wage is the culprit for all the closures. Before decrying the right of people to make a wage where they can actually afford to live, maybe consider that restaurants close for a number of reasons?

Sometimes operators just get tired. And sometimes relationships end, as is the case at Jim-Denny’s. In Sacramento, old restaurants are often replaced by fresh and exciting ones.

It’s all a part of the natural evolution of the city, one that Jim-Denny’s has survived a lot longer than most.

Naygrow said he is anxious to get the keys to Jim-Denny’s and to begin showing the place. He thinks the restaurant will have to serve beer to survive in the future. The Sacramento beer market has exploded and Naygrow thinks that serving beer will create a sustainable model in a restaurant market where people don’t have the time to wait for a stool to open up at Jim-Denny’s.

At 72, Naygrow remembers having a lot more time on his hands as a young customer eating at the diner. But now, Naygrow thinks people going to Jim-Denny’s want to be served in the amount of time it takes to eat at a fast-food place. The crowds have come out recently, but they are driven by nostalgia, flocking to Jim-Denny’s to say goodbye.

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. In fact, one could say that nostalgia has kept Jim-Denny’s alive for the last 30 years.

Despite Sacramento’s love for the greasy burgers and breakfasts served at Jim-Denny’s for a total of 85 years, beginning in a different location before moving to the current one at the end of World War II, the place came close to closing for good in 1988 and again in 2005, according to stories in The Bee archives. Each time, the operators had simply reached an end and someone always materialized to keep the place going.

Ritz Naygrow told me he began eating at Jim-Denny’s when he was a child during the Great Depression. He said the original owner – Jim Van Nort – used to feed him without charging him and the elder Naygrow never forgot that.

Hansen said the city interests are to make sure the historic building and neon sign are preserved. But as an Alkali Flat resident and a neighbor of Jim-Denny’s, he hopes a restaurant will remain on the premises.

“Jim-Denny’s is a part of our cultural fabric,” Hansen said. “It’s a much needed greasy spoon in a downtown where we need places that are affordable and family run. My hope is that Jim-Denny’s re-opens as a restaurant and the future continues to involve butter, syrup and eggs.”