No matter the time day at the Oxford Diner, the smell of coffee hangs heavy in the air and is accompanied by the mouth-watering scent of a home-cooked meal. The appetizing fragrance is interrupted by the occasional clinking of silverware, the chattering of ice, Fox News' television broadcast, the trickling of a refill and friendly conversation. Every so often the jukebox will fill the diner with anything from Patsy Cline to Big and Rich. The smiling waitress at the counter warmly spits out her greeting.
"Welcome to the Oxford Diner! Take a seat and I'll be right with you!"
The Oxford Diner, open since April 2006, is an integral meeting ground for the Miami University and Oxford communities.
Kim and Dick Swafford and their children Corey, Sarah and Mary Jane started the diner on a whim.
"I've worked in the food industry forever," Kim Swafford said, "but never had my own place."
When Phillips 27, Oxford's local diner for more than 40 years, shut down in January 2005, Kim Swafford jumped at the chance to be the town's next diner. Kim said her
family had never run a restaurant before, yet the diner was packed within its first few months open.
"We were not expecting what we got hit with," Dick Swafford said.
The Swaffords said their first customer was a Miami student named Andrew. The Swaffords said they still remember his order-a stack of two pancakes and a cup of coffee. Since then, the diner has served countless pancakes and poured innumerable cups of coffee, but there's more to the Oxford Diner than just food.
The regulars
Go to the Oxford Diner at 8 a.m. on a weekday morning and you'll find three types of people: customers, restaurant staff and the regulars. The customers are eating, the workers are serving food and the regulars are sitting at the counter. The Swaffords said the Oxford Diner regulars have their own seats and their orders never change. The waitresses know their names, faces, backgrounds and coffee orders.
Juanita Baker, a waitress at the Oxford Diner for two and a half years, said she values the camaraderie the diner provides.
"They're like family to us," Baker said. "I couldn't imagine life without coming to the diner and seeing everyone. I even come in here on days I don't have to work."
The colorful regulars make for an exciting morning, and their banter keeps the diner entertained.
Daily customer Jimmy Dale Smith rarely comes in without his signature baseball cap and lively conversation. Diner conversation topics range from telemarketers to the Westminster dog show-winning poodle.
"It's the smartest dog because it's been living with people for so long," Smith said.
The regulars serve the coffee if the waitresses are busy, retrieve their own jelly from over the counter and joke around with staff. Smith said he doesn't see the diner so much as a restaurant as a home away from home.
Ronnie Phillips has been a breakfast customer since the diner's opening.
"Everyone knows you, it's like a second family," Phillips said. "Every town should have something like this diner."
Burgers through the blackout
The Oxford Diner is committed to serving the community-even through the harshest of circumstances. They're open on holidays, in snowstorms and stayed open during the September 2008 blackout.
When Oxford lost all electricity Sept. 14, 2008, Miami students called it the "Miami blackout" but to the Oxford Diner, those days without power were anything but black.
"We were the only place still serving and we were packed," Kim Swafford said. "All the townies were cramming in here to get coffee, students came here in packs of eight and 10. (We were) filled past capacity for four days in a row because nowhere else was open."
With flashlights, gas, lanterns and ice the diner stayed open throughout the blackout. Kim said the diner bought nearly $200 worth of ice for the four day period.
"From Sunday night until Wednesday, it was craziness," Baker said. "Just absolutely crazy."
Eating your way to victory
If you're looking for a place to leave your mark on Oxford, the Oxford Diner offers a few opportunities for your legacy and a stomachache. The diner hosts two eating contests-one annual and the other available whenever you're ready for the challenge.
Every November the diner hosts a hot dog-eating contest. The winner gets free Sunday breakfast for the rest of the school year.
Kim Swafford said mostly students compete in the hot dog contest and a student almost always wins.
While the hot dog-eating contest only comes once a year, "The Terminator" challenge can be ordered up on any given day. The diner's menu describes the Terminator as an ice cream sundae, with a gallon of ice cream smothered in chocolate syrup, whipped cream and topped with a cherry.
"It's just a little thing we do," Kim Swafford said.
Kim Swafford said if a challenger can eat the whole Terminator, it's a win. Terminator winners get their pictures on the "Terminator wall of fame"-covered and re-covered with Polaroids of nauseous yet content Miami males.
Ghosts
Two college students sat quietly enjoying Sunday brunch when two red canisters fly across the room. No culprit is in sight-not to mention the shelf is out of anyone's reach. The diners turned to Kim Swafford and asked if she had seen what they had.
"Everyone who works here has had something weird happen to them," Kim Swafford said. "I think if this place is haunted, it has got to be an old customer."
Kim Swafford said she thinks there are two possible explanations behind the diner haunting: a man named Mike and the "radio guy."
Dick Swafford described the first possible ghost, Mike, as a
diner favorite.
"He left the diner one day in a bad snowstorm and never made it home," Kim Swafford said.
Sarah Swafford, Dick and Kim's oldest child, works at the diner.
"We all loved Mike," Sarah said. "He gave us a lot of the decorations in here, including those red canisters."
The second, an unknown customer who ordered lemonade and chili, came in every day at 11:30 a.m. and asked to turn the radio off.
"When he died, about three or four months after that, the radio would turn off at 11:30 a.m.," Kim Swafford said.
Baker said the radio will still turn on and off by itself from time to time.
"I don't believe in ghosts," Kim Swafford said, "but this place is making me change my mind."
Eccentric customers
Baker and Sarah Swafford have been at the Oxford Diner since it opened, and the two waitresses have accumulated a resume of unusual customers. While any restaurant has a fair share of characters, according to Baker and Sarah Swafford, the Oxford Diner takes the cake.
Kim Swafford said a man came in one day wearing a cowboy hat hiding his eyes and sat down at the counter.
Kim Swafford said the man asked if she had ever waited on a dead person before.
After four days of eating at the diner, the man told them he was dead and he worked for God.
"He only came in for three days," Kim Swafford said, "and then we never saw him again."
Dick Swafford said with some customers, it would be better if they were never seen again. He said one man, clearly inebriated, visited the diner and urinated in the back hallway before passing out in one of the booths. The next day, after the Swaffords spoke to the Oxford Police Department about keeping the man from coming back to the diner, the man stumbled inside.
Sarah said the man looked at her and said that they were nicer than the other people, than the ones that kicked him out.
"Yeah, that was us buddy," Sarah Swafford said.
A family affair
The diner is overflowing with Swafford family ties. Six landscape paintings done by the Swaffords' grandmother adorn the diner walls. Other diner décor is also in the family from the antique kitchen utensils to the life-sized, autographed John Wayne caricature.
The menu is filled with family recipes. Sarah Swafford said the peanut butter pancakes are a tradition for the Swafford family and now for the diner.
"We grew up with peanut butter pancakes," Sarah Swafford said. "I didn't even know putting peanut butter on pancakes was weird. I thought it was just like syrup!"
The bread pudding is a secret recipe of Kim Swafford's grandmother served only on Sundays.
"I finally got the recipe out of her when I opened the diner," Kim Swafford said.
The chicken and dumplings, a diner favorite, and the stuffing are other Swafford family recipes now on the menu. The diner also serves grits and sweet tea in honor of the Swafford's grandmother.
The Oxford Diner is a mix of Oxford residents and students, regulars and first-timers, entertainers and spectators. The colorful characters-from the waitress telling a story about a deranged horse to the man at the counter vocalizing his opinions on helicopter chases-makes the diner experience more than just a meal.
