Floye Dombalis, longtime matriarch of Raleigh’s oldest restaurant, has died
She knew her sometimes powerful customers by the dishes they ordered.
She kept a list of regulars in the restaurant’s cash drawer and if someone hadn’t stopped in for a meal in a while, she’d give them a call and make sure they were doing fine.
Floye Dombalis, the matriarch of Raleigh’s oldest restaurant, The Mecca, has died. She was 96.
For nearly 50 years, Dombalis ran The Mecca with her husband John, marrying into and later becoming the face of a Raleigh dining landmark. She passed away Wednesday, April 12, in Raleigh.
The Mecca opened in 1930, founded by Greek immigrants Nick and Helen Dombalis. Floye and her husband John took over the restaurant in 1952, operating it until his death in 2002. Their son Paul then ran the restaurant until it was sold in 2018.
From its longtime home on Martin Street, The Mecca has carved out a space in Raleigh history, serving state and city power brokers lunches of fried chicken and collard greens, perched on well-loved barstools and cozy wooden booths.
The signed photos of politicians and judges hung behind the register as love notes to the restaurant and the Dombalis family.
Those collard greens trace their roots back to Floye Dombalis’ upbringing in Harnett County. She believed in The Mecca’s longevity and place in Raleigh’s downtown community, seeing the restaurant as a familiar space to find an affordable and comforting plate of food.
“Businesses come and go,” Dombalis said in a 2017 interview with The News & Observer. “But not everyone sells collard greens.”
Floye Dombalis was a mainstay at the restaurant’s register, ringing up meals for diners on their way out. She retired from the business in 2017.
The Dombalis family sold The Mecca Restaurant and its building in 2019 to downtown Raleigh restaurateur Greg Hatem.
Raleigh restaurant royalty
Floye Dombalis moved from Harnett County to Raleigh to attend Hardbarger’s Business School, later working downtown as an office manager in an insurance agency. It was right next door to The Mecca. According to the restaurant’s website, John Dombalis visited the office with a friend, meeting Floye for the first time.
Floye and John were married in 1946 and she retired to raise their children, Nick, Paul and Mary.
One day in 1960, Floye was asked if she could fill in at the restaurant for someone who had called out sick. Then she became the heart of the Mecca for the next 50 years.
“I joke now that maybe I shouldn’t have done such a good job that day,” Floye Dombalis said in 2017.
Her children Paul and Mary Dombalis Winstead said The Mecca was imbued with her sense of hospitality, an identity born in rural North Carolina.
“Just the way mom interacted with customers, she had a lot of friends up there,” Paul Dombalis said.
“For mom, hospitality was in her veins,” Mary said. “She invited people to her home (for meals) who didn’t have family.”
Floye Dombalis knew her often powerful customers by their usual dishes. Mary Dombalis Winstead said a former Council of State member came up to her mother at a doctor’s appointment a few years ago.
“She came up to mom, who was in a wheelchair, and as she was introducing herself, mom said, ‘Shrimp salad, at the counter,’” Mary said. “She did identify people by what they ordered.”
Former Congressman and North Carolina Supreme Court Justice G.K. Butterfield appeared on the news one afternoon at the Dombalis house.
“Suddenly she said, ‘Zorba’s special and a Greek salad,’” Winstead said.
Despite working at the restaurant during the day, Mary and Paul said their mother still cooked dinner at home for their family nearly every night. The meals at the Dombalis house were personal, not simply dishes from the restaurant, they said.
“It was country cooking, chicken and pastry, collards, but she could also cook all the Greek delicacies,” Mary said.
“She was a wonderful cook,” Paul said. “She could cook the Greek dishes as well as a Greek. We had the best of both worlds.”
She ran the restaurant’s books and at home kept the score, nicknamed “The Count,” for her strict accounting of everything in their lives.
“In our family she was ‘The Count,’” Winstead said. “She counted everything. If she made cookies she would know exactly how many.”
As Raleigh ebbed and flowed around the now 93-year-old restaurant, Floye Dombalis kept account of the city and its citizens. Noticing the tastes of influential and complicated diners as The Mecca marked time around them. For decades, her food and her company became a constant, Winstead said.
“She was a steady presence,” Winstead said.
This story was originally published April 14, 2023 at 12:48 PM.
