‘Mike’s last day.’ Owner of Fort Worth’s Paris Coffee Shop retires after 55 years
The line of people waiting for a table at the Paris Coffee Shop on Saturday morning stretched back clear to the kitchen, as the front door swung open every few minutes. The smell of coffee and pancakes and biscuits hung in the air.
At the front of the line was the owner Mike Smith, 77, greeting every person who passed through with a warm smile, before telling them where to sit.
His blue T-shirt, which he wore underneath black suspenders, read “Retired, Retired, Retired,” the words stacked on top of each other, getting bigger from top to bottom.
A couple of children came up to Smith and looked up at him with wide eyes. They didn’t know who he was, or why today was such a special day, but the man standing behind them did.
“This is Mike’s last day,” he told them.
Most people who came in knew Smith from their time at the diner on Magnolia Avenue, where he’s baked an estimated 500,000 pies and done a little bit of everything since 1965, when his father owned the place. They gave him hugs — Smith said he “wasn’t turning those down” — and many asked for a picture. They told him congratulations, or that they would miss him.
When regular customers Brock and Maggie Stevens walked up to Smith, he told Maggie, 59, she gets prettier every time she sees him. Brock, 64, told him he loved him, and Smith told him he loved him back.
Smith added that before they left he had a pan of chicken and dumplings — their favorite — for them to take home.
“He’s one of my dear friends and I’ve known him for a lot of years, and it’s just a sad day,” Brock told the Star-Telegram. “But happy for him.”
Smith didn’t have a lot of time to feel too sentimental and said he was mainly tired, busy with a packed restaurant and a long line of hungry patrons. He came in to work at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, as he has for five or six days every week. He said he had to trim some ham for breakfast.
Friday was the the last time he came in early to bake his signature pies. A Star-Telegram photographer was there to capture him as he guided his replacement, Cleveland Arner, in the proper way to bake the sweet pies, which range from cherry, to peach, to peanut butter chocolate meringue.
“Being around him for so long, it’s kind of hard to let go of some things,” Arner said. “He’s really taken me under his wing and taught me everything I know pretty much in life.”
Mike Smith told customers on Saturday morning it wasn’t goodbye forever, that he would return to the restaurant his father, Gregory K. Smith, bought in 1930 from Vic Paris, who started it in 1926. Beginning Monday, the business will be under new ownership, and staff said there are positive changes coming ranging from renovations, to expanded hours, to new dishes.
But employees also reassured concerned customers that they’ll still be there, and it will still be the diner they’ve come to know.
“Some of the food will stay the same but we’re just gonna revise the menu,” said Kay Mahanay, a 64-year-old who’s worked at the shop for 33 years. “Just good changes — very good.”
Smith remembers growing up around his father’s restaurant, spending his summers cutting and cleaning vegetables. Okra was always his least favorite, he said, because it made him itch. Even thinking about it on Saturday made his feet itch, he joked.
He was going to the University of North Texas in the 1960s, trying to get his masters in administrative management, when his father became sick with Parkinson’s disease. He decided then he would run the restaurant so his ailing father could focus on his health.
Gregory Smith died in 1971 and Mike filled his father’s role, helping the restaurant grow and become the breakfast and lunch staple of the Fairmount District that it is today.
His favorite part of running the diner, he said, has been all the friendships he’s formed.
“It feels wonderful that I’ve gotten all these friends that are wishing me well and I’m gonna hate to leave,” Smith said. “But yet — 55 years is enough.”
Calvin L. Wilkes, 80, sat in the front booth on Saturday, with a plate of pork chops, eggs and biscuits. As he overheard people talking about Smith’s last day, he chimed in, saying in disbelief, “Excuse me?”
Wilkes, who lives close to Magnolia Avenue, comes to the restaurant almost every week, sometimes up to four times in a single week. He said Smith has been a big reason why, and the feeling of community and camaraderie that he has helped create.
“Everybody gravitates toward Mr. Smith,” he said. “He’s very amusing at times, because he knows how to crack jokes, get you laughing. But it’s the congenial attitude that’s felt when you talk to Mike.”
A final send-off
As it drew closer to 11 a.m., the closing time on Saturdays, Brock started to speak up from his table, trying to cut through the chatter of the crowded diner. He stood up.
“Hey everybody, can I get your attention for one moment?” he announced to the room.
He asked if everyone could put their hands together for Smith, the man who has become synonymous with the Paris Coffee Shop.
The room erupted into applause for around a minute as Brock walked over to give him a hug. A couple of people whistled. One person shouted out, “Encore, encore!”
Smith, smiling, said it mainly made him feel embarrassed.
He eventually retired to a booth as the restaurant began to empty out, and had a hard time keeping his eyes open. He said it did feel like it had sunk in for him that he’s leaving, even if he was too tired to feel emotional.
“The emotions are not there yet because I’m so happy not to have to think about Monday morning, getting up at 3 o’clock,” he said.
Smith feels 55 years is plenty long enough, he said, and he hopes to do more in the future than just “go to work and eat and sleep and go to work every day.” He said he wants to travel, though not too far away from home, “so I can get back to my bed pretty quick.”
It wasn’t easy for him to describe how it felt to have everyone come up to him all morning, impacted by his years of work and his personal touch.
It made him feel special, he acknowledged.
“That pays off for all the years,” he said.
This story was originally published April 17, 2021 at 4:11 PM.
