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Welcome Diner
924 E. Roosevelt, 602-495-1111

As downtown Phoenix continues to develop its arts community as well as a growing base of residents, new restaurants arriving in the precarious conditions find themselves faced with challenges that weed out the less inventive and reward the entrepreneurs who can think on their feet and keep the clients coming back.

The Welcome Diner on Roosevelt Street is an authentic Diner built by the Valentine Company back in the depression. Of the 1200 produced, just over 100 are still in operation. Thanks to Chef Peter Deyo and downtown developer Sloan McFarland, the Welcome is a great place for breakfast and lunch and the right reason to up your Lipitor dosage to near toxic levels.

There are a lot of things I like about the Welcome, I’ll start with the product behind the menu. Chef Deyo has carefully selected the best he can get from local farms and vendors. Freeman Farms brings in the hamburger. Shreiners, our sausage making friends on Seventh Street, do the dogs and bacon, Karsh’s handles the bread and Lux keeps the
coffee pot full.

My first encounter with Welcome’s menu was the Hot dog with Coney Island Chili Sauce and grilled onions ($4.75).
I added a coke and fries for a few dollars more. I knew immediately upon tasting the incredible dog that I was going to be coming back to try other menu items and work up an article about what I had found. Boy, oh boy, was my wife going to be mad if she ever found out. We had both taken oaths against decadent caloric lunches. Obviously, going forward, the ship of my marriage would be sailing on an ocean of horrible lies.

My associates and I returned the following week after a regiment of Omega-3 fish oil pills ready to take on Welcomes famous Bacon Cheeseburger ($6). It’s a pile of perfection for burger lovers. I did mine with grilled onions, fries and a bottle of Mexican Coca Cola. What a lunch!

The diner is small, inside it may seat six or seven comfortably. The outside lawn has picnic tables to enjoy on nice days. Welcome has been welcoming patrons for about one year. The diner has been part of the neighborhood but never operated prior to the renovations by Deyo and McFarland.