Have liver and onions with soccer on the side

SANDY — At Jim's Diner, 9300 S. State, you can get chicken-fried steak with soup or salad, a potato and veggies for $5.95. Or you can try the marinated steak and eggs, with hash browns and pancakes, same price.

Home cooked.

You can also get plenty of home-cooked opinions from Jim himself about Real Salt Lake's plan to build a soccer stadium in his back yard.

"Thirty years! Thirty years, 16-hour days!" owner Jim Bournakis is saying. "Screwball walks in and says he wants to buy it. Nickels! He wants to pay nickels! Forget it."

For Bournakis, it seems a no-lose proposition. He has his loyal clientele, some of which have been coming since he bought the place in 1974. Back then, Jordan High School was across the street and his marquee offering was burgers. But in 1995 he changed the name from Chubby's to Jim's Diner, expanded the menu, and just kept rolling.

Meanwhile, customers continued coming.

"Those are my friends," he says, greeting a couple as they enter the diner.

"Hi, Jim," they say back. "Good to see you."

It's that kind of place. A place with a dining counter, Formica tabletops and the smell of morning bacon and coffee. A portable TV is running on the counter. He and his wife do most of the cooking, serving and cleaning.

In the afternoon he leaves for his second job, as a cook in the cafeteria at Westminster College. That's when his wife, Georgia, takes over.

Bournakis came to the United States in 1961, leaving his native Greece.

He worked in the Merchant Marines until 1974, when he moved to Salt Lake to be with family. Upon arrival he bought his own restaurant. There have been up-and-down periods, but to survive three decades in the same spot says something: The food is good, cheap, fast, convenient or any combination thereof.

Other businesses have come, but none has scared Bournakis into closing his doors. Joe's Crab Shack, Spaghetti Mama's, the Mayan and Ruby River are all across the street in the high-rent Jordan Commons. Jim's Diner is all by itself, a low-profile stucco with a tiny parking lot and menu specials painted on the windows.

Bournakis says he's not moving unless he has a darn good reason. And so far, that reason hasn't appeared.

"I buy this place 30 years ago — $101,000. Now they come and offer peanuts!"