Mike Smith, the longtime steward of a Fort Worth landmark, Paris Coffee Shop, has died.
He was 78.
Smith worked at the Greek-inspired diner his father acquired in 1926 for more than 55 years, including 50 years as its owner and operator before selling in 2021.
His passing marks the end of an era not on the Near Southside, but all of Fort Worth.
“For 55-plus years, Mike has been a fixture of our community, serving this neighborhood long before the name ‘Near Southside’ was even whispered,” officials with Near Southside Inc. wrote in a post on Facebook. “Greeting customers at the door, watching families celebrate special occasions, and welcoming friends new and old around the table were hallmarks of Mike’s tenure as the owner-operator of Paris Coffee Shop.”
We do not keep good food – we sell it was a mantra seen in ads throughout the 1930s.
Smith’s father, Gregory Smith arrived in America as a 13-year-old Greek immigrant. His name was Grigonos Asikis.
“He changed his name to Smith, so he could get a job,” Smith said years later to this writer.
Then 26, Gregory Smith wound his way to Fort Worth from Rikers Island, the strip of land in the East River between Queens and the Bronx in New York. Gregory Smith acquired the diner from Vic Paris in 1926 and ran it for 40 years at the original location, 614 W. Magnolia.
Mike Smith was a student pursuing a graduate degree at the University of North Texas in the mid-1960s when his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Smith left school to run the restaurant.
He took it over fully after the death of his father in 1971. Smith moved the diner to its current site at the corner of Magnolia and Hemphill Street in the mid-1970s. Smith estimated at the time of his retirement that he had made close to 500,000 of Paris’ acclaimed pies.
Smith sold the diner to a group led by Lou Lambert. The diner reopened only recently after undergoing renovations and modernization. Lambert said at the time he took over the restaurant that his group planned to invest in giving respect to what Paris Coffee Shop was and “what it needs to be today to reflect the market and demographic of the neighborhood.”
At the time of the sale, Smith said that “55 years is enough.”
When Lambert reopened the doors in May to the renovated diner, adorned with new walls, floors, bathrooms, menus, and a new kitchen, Smith was the first guest invited back in.
“On behalf of the entire community we extend our condolences to the Smith family and our remembrances of Mike,” Near Southside Inc. said.
