DAVE AND LAVERNE’S MODERN DINER
Neighbourhood: Southdale
Address: 15 Lakewood Blvd
Phone: 204-594-9015
Entrees: $13 – $36
Part retro fantasy, part café reboot, Dave and LaVerne’s nails what a modern diner should be by trading greasy-spoon kitsch for polished comfort and a genuine sense of joy. It’s sleeker and smarter than its 1950s inspiration, built for how we eat now. It’s a love letter to the golden age of hospitality, rewritten with a modern palate and a wink of pop-art playfulness which simply adds joy from the moment you enter.
The name, a tribute to the owners’ parents, carries that generational warmth into every detail. This isn’t nostalgia by imitation but by intuition. It reimagines what a diner might look like if it grew up alongside its clientele. Operated by Winnipeg’s True Hospitality Group (the team behind a half dozen local concepts including James Avenue Pumphouse and Cibo Waterfront Café ), the restaurant leans on comfort food, both nostalgic and proud. The quiet flex: everything’s made from scratch; retro charm delivered with sincerity.
The lighthearted design walks a smart line between homage and theater. Black-and-white tile meets mid-century cues; chrome stools at a smattering of high tops dot a space that glows with optimism. Even the pastel, atomic age TV frames feel like set dressing from a lost sitcom. It’s playful backdrop for the contemporary rhythm of espresso hissing, and cocktails shaking, a room where families, retirees, and date-night diners all feel in on the fun. Service matches the scene, exuding gracious warmth amid a room humming with chatter and clinking cutlery.
The menu reads like a greatest-hits album of diner fare, remastered. Burgers, melts, and turkey dinners mingle with modern riffs: plates of Brussels sprouts atop whipped feta, Cajun-spiced arancini, succulent short rib with Yorkshire pudding.
Crispy Brussels and feta earn their fan base with fried sprouts that crunch audibly, their bitterness softened by whipped feta and a sweet chili glaze. Candied almonds and pickled onion add heat, sweetness, and tang, proof of the kitchen’s knack for balance. That frothy feta reappears in a beet salad brightened by mandarin.
Cajun Arancini arrive crisp and golden, cheese-curd centers melting into spiced rosé sauce finished with hot honey. Buttermilk-fried pork tenderloin bites satisfy like the love child of chicken tenders and schnitzel, while the prime rib burger dip pushes diner fare into steakhouse indulgence —messy, meaty, unapologetically rich.
Despite not leaving room, the showcase of baking cinches a sweet ending. Apple and chocolate-cherry pies, stay on theme, refined just enough to remind you, this isn’t grandma’s recipe. Dave and LaVerne’s works not because it mimics the past, but because it understands what made it matter: warmth, familiarity, and a touch of spectacle. Polished yet genuine, it’s a diner that plays the nostalgia card without getting stuck in the shuffle.
