Earl and Dawn White made the difficult announcement on Jan. 28th to its loyal customers that they were closing their beloved restaurant 5th Avenue Cafe after 14 years of business.
Behind the closed doors that sit on West Thomas Road imprints over a generation of memories in joy, laughter, warmth, love – all stemming from endless conversations with customers that Dawn and Earl called “family.”
Earl and Dawn had their own corporate jobs and were married for 10 years before Earl thought of opening a business. After searching all over Phoenix for a place to set up shop, Dawn said she remembered taking a sick leave off of work when her husband begged to visit one restaurant in downtown Phoenix claiming it to be “the one.”
This spot, in particular, used to be a restaurant in the 1940s called The Upton’s; a well-known place for residents, politicians, and celebrities to dine. However, in the 60s, a woman by the name of Dee Bung bought the restaurant from Mr. Upton. As of now, the Upton family still resides in Arizona in the Willow neighborhood, which is behind the cafe.
“What’s interesting is that Bung never changed the name of the restaurant until Mr. Upton died out of respect for him – you don’t hear stories like that nowadays,” Dawn said. “If someone were to take any restaurant, they would normally slash the name right away. Back then, it was definitely a different way of doing business.”
Dawn said the restaurant had cushioned booths that reminded her of the east coast with its diner feel. She said the day she and Earl visited, she wasn’t feeling well and ordered chicken soup, remembering how the noodles were unevenly shaped and the vegetables were cut into different sizes. But nonetheless, Dawn looked to her husband and said, “Yeah, I can market this and sell it.”
Through the transition of Earl and Dawn buying 5th Avenue Cafe, they decided to keep the original name and even offer some menu choices from the previous management including the chicken noodle soup.
For the first two years of business, Earl was the one who ran the cafe until he took a leave when his mother unexpectedly passed away and Dawn had to step in to help run the business.
“I worked at an engineering firm so I traveled all week, came home on Fridays, and would be up at 6 a.m. to open the cafe,” Dawn said. “I told myself, if we’re going to have this, I need to know this business from the ground up.”
Then the pandemic hit.
Gov. Doug Ducey mandated take-out only starting on March 15, 2020, which forced the restaurant to lay off their employees who had been with them since the beginning. Dawn said these employees were all under 35 so for some, this was their first job that they stayed at.
“It (became) one employee who was the cook, and my husband and I in the cafe. It was a crazy 75 days,” Dawn said.
Dawn said their customers were incredible during this time. Once dine-in was allowed again, they had a customer who was a nurse who helped tape off six feet around the cafe and gather hand sanitizers from CVS stores. Dawn also said there were customers who ordered from the cafe every single day to help out, from March 15th all the way to their closing day last week.
“The biggest thing we saw was when our breakfast and lunch business went down. Then our PPP money went down as well,” Dawn said.
The PPP or Paycheck Protection Program provided cash flow assistance through federally guaranteed loans for small businesses and sole proprietorships. Dawn said after a long, drawn-out process, they were awarded money to cover payroll costs, but couldn’t afford maintenance fees, electricity or supplies.
“If you’re only working at a third of your clients, you can’t pay all of your APS bills and utilities,” she said.
Dawn also said that it increasingly became more difficult to run the restaurant on a fraction of the customers, which led to them running out of money at the end. Although reopening is uncertain at the moment, Earl and Dawn are both optimistic and positive at this time.
“I’m not certain on the extended families of 5th Avenue however, I’m grateful that my immediate circle did not test positive for the virus – especially my husband who is high risk,” Dawn said. “As long as you have health and hope, you’ve got it all.”
Dawn and Earl truly thought of their customers as a family and grew an unconditional love towards them. Since they opened up the restaurant 14 years ago and built a community of loyal customers, they saw children sitting in high chairs that are now adults.
Dawn recounts the legacy at the cafe as a place where both the gift of food and friendship bloomed. She also believes that it’s carried in their customer’s hearts.
“We did birthday parties, anniversary events, new job celebrations, and so much more. That’s the heart-wrenching part in this,” Dawn said. “It feels like our family is broken up now.”
Dawn and Earl aren’t sure what the next chapter of their lives will bring, but that they are brainstorming what they envision in the future.
“The story’s unwritten. It’s only been a week and I still have so many emails to get through from everyone,” said Dawn.
Although the cafe rests vacant now, the relationships Dawn and Earl White have built for 14 years with their customers, heartily go beyond the four walls of the building.
Contact the reporter at yhan99@asu.edu.
Yoori Han was the politics editor at Downtown Devil during fall 2021 and part of spring 2022.
