In December 2021, Aaron Lee and Mallory Gott entered Dapper Companies’ Las Vegas Coffee Shop Giveaway, with the grand prize being a fully built-out restaurant space in Dapper’s Huntridge Center. Lee, a veteran of Andy Richter’s and James Trees’ kitchens, and Gott, a creative specialist with a branding and interior design background, won the contest with Winnie & Ethel’s, a midcentury diner concept named for their grandmothers. They also got married shortly after, because when you’re winning, why not keep winning?
Today, Winnie & Ethel’s is cooking up rib-sticking breakfasts and lunches, serving them in a 1940s-inspired dining room that feels like it’s always been part of the 60-plus year-old Downtown shopping center. Their personal touches make the experience uniquely memorable, from Lee’s lovingly realized diner staples to Gott’s mismatched, thrifting-score coffee cups. And while the days aren’t always sunny-side up—the rooftop condenser for the diner’s walk-in refrigerator was vandalized just weeks ago—the couple is continually striving for better, recently introducing an after-hours, ticketed supper club that marries Winnie & Ethel’s humble charms to elevated cuisine. They took a few minutes after a busy lunch to talk about diner life.
What are your most popular dishes?
Aaron Lee: One of our most popular items is the classic diner breakfast. And a couple of months ago, we added a Southern breakfast; that’s like the diner breakfast with the three types of meat, but instead of our scratch sausage we have andouille sausage, and grits instead of hashbrowns. People really love that. And for lunch, our pot roast French dip is a huge seller.
You worked in some prominent kitchens before W&E. Are there lessons you picked up there that resonate with you today?
AL: I think the biggest lesson that I’ve learned about owning my own place is that everything that happens is pretty much our money. When you’re a head chef or a sous chef somewhere else, you’re using someone else’s money. We try to use everything we can and try to save on costs while still having really good products.
So you really feel it when a dish breaks, when a burger burns …
Mallory Gott: Or when your walk-in gets irrevocably damaged.
Oof. We’ll rally for you—get everyone in the city down here, ordering French dips.
AL: That would be great!
MG: [Aaron] is so focused on not only making sure that the food is of a high quality, but that there is consistency … which as a sous chef, he did at Esther’s Kitchen as well. We’re thinking about the people that we brought into the team: How are they continuing to make sure that when he’s not here cooking everything, that it’s the same consistency? … [He’s] teaching people how to maintain that high standard.
AL: It’s a personal thing for me. If I’m very excited for us to go to breakfast and everything’s overcooked, you just get let down. I never want anyone to have that feeling. So, we’ve always got crispy bacon. We cook our eggs a little softer than most, and if you want them hard, we’ll cook over-hard eggs; we’re not against that. And we’ll do country-style whatever you want.
Did you once have late-night hours, or did
I dream that?
MG: You’re right: When we opened, we started with dinner service. But we found it wasn’t financially self-sustaining, so we transitioned to seven days a week [breakfast and lunch]. But this supper club really is our foray back into eventually, hopefully being able to do dinner again [and] not be stressed out having people in here every night.
At your July supper club with James Trees, you served tuna crudo and whole fried bass with yam sauce—not at all what you’d expect at a diner.
MG: It’s a different theme every month. June was Summer Solstice; [July was] Feast of the Seven Fishes; next month will be Back to School. And we’ll have different collaborations. Tentatively, we’ll be collaborating with chef Roy Ellamar in September; we’re just waiting on that final signature.
Aaron, how much fun is it for you to mix it up like this? Hashbrowns by day, octopus carpaccio by night?
AL: I always tell Mallory that if we do another restaurant, I want to do something like a supper club. So, this is like practice for something in the future. The farther future.
MG: But first, we wanna take a vacation [laughs]. That’s the first step: take any vacation.
AL: It’s good to keep it going—to be doing that kind of food every once in a while, so I don’t get too rusty.
Learn more about Winnie & Ethel’s supper club dinners by joining the mailing list at winnieandethels.com.
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