Diner is comfort food for its many regulars

They met at the White Palace Grill in late October for a finalwalk-through.

The papers were signed. The lawyering was done. All 77-year-oldArthur Bookman had to do was walk away from the venerable diner he'downed at the corner of Roosevelt and Canal since 1939.

Bookman, frail and nearing death, hesitated before turning overthe keys.

"He had tears in his eyes," said George Liakopoulos, a friend andbusiness associate who took over the grill, a Chicago institutionknown for its hominy grits and its hospitality.

"The White Palace Grill is Arthur Bookman," said Liakopoulos, 35."I promised him I'd take care of it."

And despite growing pressure to dump the diner, Liakopoulos isn'tcaving. With Home Depot planning to open a 142,000-square-foot storebehind the White Palace, the offers to buy are pouring in.

Home Depot tried to woo Liakopoulos this winter, as did realestate agents eyeing the corner lot for a Dunkin' Donuts or a 7-Eleven. But Liakopoulos said no to them all. Instead, he plans toupgrade the 24-hour diner, one of Chicago's oldest, and double itssize.

The regulars at the diner-and there are hundreds-are breathingsighs of relief. "You don't see too many places like this," said acustomer named Frank, who did not give his last name. He sat on a redstool at the diner's counter, taking a break from his job at the railyards on the other side of Roosevelt Road.

As he sipped his coffee, Frank chatted with one of the waitressesand peered at the yellowing signboards advertising rib eye steaks for$3.85, liver sausage for $1.85 and oatmeal with milk for $1.70.

"This place eases my mind," he said.

Up and down the counter, taxi drivers, teachers, students and copspraised the diner's food and its comfortable feel, fostered by thewaitstaff and its oldtimers.

"Anyone can come here," said Anabela Vasconcelos, a 24-year-oldteacher. "It's a place where you lose your sense of class."

David Bourne, a 69-year-old limousine driver, knows that betterthan most. He has been coming to the White Palace three or four timesa week since 1956.

"It's our meeting place," said Bourne, who shared his meal with ahousekeeper he met at the diner a few weeks ago. "Anywhere that makesyou feel comfortable and wanted, you'll go out of your way for."

Liakopoulos, who bought the Hollywood Grill at North and Ashlandfrom Bookman in 1990 and recently sold the Golden Apple diner in LakeView, knows what he's getting himself into.

"This place is like a landmark," said Liakopoulos, who runs thediners with his father, 72-year-old Odysseas, a Greek immigrant whoopened his first diner at 18th and Wabash in the 1950s.

Liakopoulos says an upgrade will make the business more profitableand help it fit into the gentrifying South Loop neighborhood. But hesaid he won't betray Bookman, who died three weeks after selling thediner.

"It's important to keep the character," Liakopoulos said. "I madea promise."