Our Focus Feature takes a look at Dresden Track Kitchen's 40th Anniversary year in Dresden

The Track Kitchen in Dresden has been owned and operated by the Paraskevopoulos family for the past 40 years, since 1984. Jimmy Paraskevopoulos has been the owner for at least 30 of those years.

Dresden’s Track Kitchen offers a family atmosphere

When you walk into the Track Kitchen for the first time, one of the many signs you see on the walls of the Dresden restaurant is one that proclaims: “Enter strangers, leave as friends.”

And it’s true. A visitor observes people talking to one another at their own table and to other patrons sitting at other tables, sometimes across the dining room.

“It’s a family atmosphere,” says owner Jimmy Paraskevopoulos, who always seems to have a smile on his face. “We know almost all of the people who visit the Track Kitchen, and if we don’t know them when they come in, we’ll probably know them when they leave.”

It’s been like that for a long time.

Jimmy has been part of the Track Kitchen for at least 30 years, but it was his parents, Charlie and Helen Paraskevopoulos, who took over the operation exactly 40 years ago, in 1984.

Back then, the Track Kitchen was mostly the domain of the local horse racing crowd, of the men and women who tended to their horses early the morning in the nearby barns, and of the people who came to visit the races at the nearby Dresden Raceway on hot Sunday afternoons.

“Back then the place was packed with racing patrons,” Jimmy recalls. “The race track was busier and it was almost strictly horsemen (eating at the Track Kitchen). Now we get all kinds of people, and that’s also good.”

Jimmy’s association with the Track Kitchen began well before he became the owner. While operating his own restaurant in Blenheim (the Pegasus), Jimmy would sometimes slip into Dresden to lend a hand to his parents at the Track Kitchen. He became a familiar face to the patrons, and they soon counted him as part of the Track Kitchen family.

Since then, Jimmy has presided over an establishment that is open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Breakfast and lunch is served daily. There is room for 40 diners.

Jimmy is the cook, but in some ways also the ringmaster, because he has a friendly word with most people, many of whom he knows well and some of whom are just visiting.

Yet he’s somewhat surprised that the Track Kitchen is so well known.

“A few weeks ago we had a couple from Australia,” Jimmy says, somewhat amazed.

Still, it’s not uncommon for people to drive in from Sarnia, Chatham or London, and some of them on a regular basis.

They’re making the trip to Dresden for the food, but also for the good company. And for the atmosphere. The restaurant’s walls are adorned with old photos of people and their winning horses, long gone and some perhaps forgotten, but their memory somewhat enshrined.

It’s a homage to the restaurant’s original and almost exclusive clientele, and a tribute to the Track Kitchen’s beginnings, one that Jimmy and his parents have worked to ensure will continue.

Yet he’s also keenly aware of the importance of his customers and their continued loyalty.

“It’s only because of the great people of Dresden and Chatham-Kent that we’ve been able to serve the community for the past 40 years,” says Jimmy.