NORFOLK — Less than two miles from each other on Granby Street, similarly named cafes serve omelets made with the same tried-and-true technique.
The eateries were even owned by the same man at one point, but now Charlie’s Cafe and Charlie’s American Cafe are no longer part of the same family.
And despite the confusion of some guests who buy their gift cards or order their to-go meals from one location and attempt to pick them up at the other, the cafes haven’t had the same owner for three years.
Berfin Karaaslan, 30, and her family bought Charlie’s Cafe in 2014 from former real estate agent Ted Warren, 59.
Originally from Diyarbakır, Turkey, the Karaaslans were on the hunt for the perfect spot to open up a Turkish restaurant. When they discovered Charlie’s Cafe, the family frequented the diner for several weeks before settling on a business deal with Warren.
But instead of renovating the 112-year-old building into a Turkish eatery, the family decided to stick with the diner’s original American menu which touts “ultimate omelets” and “Swanky Franks,” a throwback to 1983 when the building was a hot dog joint.
“It’s a greasy spoon place,” Karaaslan said. “It has its own charms, and we don’t want to change that.”
Built in 1905 by a fireman named James Harper, Charlie’s Cafe is one of the oldest standing buildings on Granby Street, according to the Virginia Tourism website.
Located at 1800 Granby St., the building has a decades-long history as an eatery. In the 80s it was “Swanky Franks,” until Charlie Ellison and his mother bought the property and opened “Charlie’s Home Cooking.”
Years later, restaurateur Kathy Lawless purchased the diner and ran it until 2007 when Warren and an old business partner bought the spot.
“We wanted it to continue to be Charlie’s,” Warren said. “Charlie’s is a staple for Norfolk.”
Warren ran the diner for seven years before the build-up of chain restaurants in Ghent, like Cookout and Wendy’s, started to frustrate him. Warren, who says he eats out at local restaurants seven days a week, said the construction of Chick-Fil-A on Monticello Avenue was the “last straw.”
“It’s all chains,” he said. “We weren’t getting a lot of support [from the city] for independent businesses.”
So Warren decided to pass the Charlie’s Cafe torch to the Karaaslan family. He’d already bought a second location 1.8 miles up the road in Riverview with the intention of opening up another Charlie’s.
That location, 4024 Granby St., had been Veneziano Italian Restaurant since 1933. Warren bought the property from the Liercio family, along with their entire corporation, giving him access to a special liquor license that’s grandfathered in and allows the property to sell a full bar from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Instead of going for a breakfast diner vibe, Warren decided to make the American cafe into a hub for local artists and musicians, where patrons can grab a beer and a bite while listening to local music and traveling bands.
Along with breakfast and lunch, Warren also serves dinner where the Karasslans do not. His menu offers pizza, as well as vegetarian and vegan items.
While the restaurants are different, they share at least one common thread: the omelets.
Warren isn’t positive who created the technique that makes the two cafes’ omelets so fluffy, but he thinks it may have been Ellison himself. To craft the breakfast-staple, the two restaurants “blow up” the eggs in a milkshake maker before putting them on the stove.
Both cafes also have hot dog sections on their menus titled “Swanky Franks,” and both offer breakfast platters named after Tom Hanks who stopped into the original location a few years ago for breakfast.
And while the two cafes provide a different vibe for those looking to get their fill of brunch and burgers, Warren and Karaaslan say that they support each other’s ventures from a distance.
“We do get confused with [Charlie’s American Cafe] a lot,” Karaaslan said. “We’re doing our own thing.”
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