By Cliff Radel
Enquirer staff writer

John Prasinos of Temple Restaurant on Sixth Street downtown talks with Lucille Taylor of Houston, a WWII veteran's widow in town for the VFW convention. The Enquirer/PATRICK REDDY

DOWNTOWN - Angie Prasinos grabbed the sizzling bacon cheeseburger platter and thanked her lucky stars for the 105th Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention.

Her brother, Dino, the short-order cook at Temple Restaurant, sprinkled on more fries just before his sister, the claims adjuster/waitress, whisked away the plate.

Turning to her mother, Zoe, Prasinos picked up two pieces of toast for a conventioneer having a late Thursday breakfast.

Passing the cash register, Angie took two glasses of ice water from her dad, John.

Then she plunged into the dining room of her family's eatery. She glided between tables filled with diners wearing VFW campaign hats and trading war stories.

"It's been like this all week," Angie said. "Lots of sweet people. Great tippers.

"We've been so busy, I had to take vacation days from my job at Great American Insurance."

The VFW convention has doubled the Temple's business since Saturday. Normally closed on weekends, the restaurant opened to accommodate the convention crowds.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, only breakfast was served. No time to change over to lunch.

"We've never been this busy since we opened in 1991," said John Prasinos as he rang up a customer's order.

"About time something like this happened," Dino said as he carved meat for a gyro. After the riots, after it took eight years to build the Walgreen next to us, after the Nordstrom that was going to be across the street and is still a parking lot, after the city destroyed the character of this part of town by wrecking all the little shops, it's about time we saw something good."

All week, the Temple has seen people lining up for breakfast at 6:15 a.m.

"And we don't open until 7 a.m.," said Dino.

"I came for breakfast on Tuesday and the line was down the block," said conventioneer Bob Roberts, a Vietnam War veteran and retired Navy man from Waukegan, Ill.

"You always go eat where there's a line. That's a sign the food's good," said Joseph Ford Sr., a Korean War Veteran and retired steelworker from Youngstown.

Several conventioneers griped to Angie Prasinos about the price of orange juice at their hotels.

"Mine wants $3.50," said Bob Roberts. "Here, it's 80 cents.

"And the service is swift. And the people are nice. They look at you. Smile. And say hello."

Instead of just treating him as a customer, they made the old Navyman feel special.

E-mail cradel@enquirer.com