Dear Dad’s opens downtown Greensboro location ahead of grand opening

Downtown Greensboro picked up another sign of confidence this week as Dear Dad’s began serving customers at 219-A South Elm Street, adding a larger breakfast-and-lunch option to a corridor that already depends on steady foot traffic.

The Greensboro-based restaurant is operating in soft-opening mode ahead of a free grand opening celebration Thursday, April 23, starting with a ribbon cutting at noon. The event will include live music throughout the day and giveaways, a push that signals Dear Dad’s is not treating the downtown move as a quiet second opening, but as a public statement about the district’s future.

Owners Haras Sajjad and Ryan Settembre said the company’s original Battleground Avenue restaurant opened about a year and a half ago and quickly outgrew expectations. Long waits became common enough that an expansion made sense, and the South Elm Street site was built larger, brighter and more open than the first location. It seats about 60 to 80 guests and is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., giving downtown workers, residents and visitors a place to eat from early breakfast through dinner.

The menu keeps the same all-day mix that made the first restaurant popular, pairing comfort food with Mexican-inspired dishes. Customers can order pancakes, loaded breakfast burritos, birria quesadillas, chicken and waffles, sandwiches and coffee drinks made through an in-house espresso program. That blend is designed to capture more than one part of the day, which matters in a downtown corridor where lunch traffic alone is no longer enough to sustain every restaurant.

Dear Dad’s is also testing a membership program for people who live or work downtown, offering discounts of 10% to 15% in an effort to build repeat business and stronger neighborhood ties. That kind of loyalty play suggests the restaurant is looking beyond one-time traffic and into the daily habits that keep a central business district active.

The move comes even as several longtime downtown restaurants have closed, but Sajjad said the opening did not discourage them. He said the company has been in Greensboro for more than 20 years and still believes downtown is rising. That matters in a district Downtown Greensboro Inc. describes as a hub for dining, shopping, arts, entertainment and community experiences.

South Elm Street already carries a dense mix of eateries, including Crafted - the Art of the Taco at 219 South Elm Street and Jakes Diner at 611 South Elm Street. Dear Dad’s arrival adds another all-day draw to that stretch, and its early opening suggests downtown Greensboro is still pulling enough customers to justify fresh investment, not just survival.