By Toni Terrell
The Answer Editor-in-Chief

Although Shari’s Dinner serves ½-pound flame-broiled burgers that melt in your mouth, malted shakes to die for and a homemade clam chowder that is second to none – Barry Greenfield insists the 50s diner is not a business. “This is a ministry first,” said the co-owner, who runs the restaurant with his wife Shari and their partner John Kinikin.

“We got this restaurant to serve as a ministry for the people. Naturally, we’re in business but we want people to come here and be able to get the gospel. That’s our first priority,” he said.

Opened since September 2007 at 1900 North Buffalo just off Lake Mead Boulevard in Las Vegas, Shari’s Diner captures the old Mel’s Diner look – complete with an old fashioned jukebox and waitresses dressed right out of the Happy Days sitcom.

Formerly a Cuban restaurant, the family-owned and operated diner brings the 50s alive with an atmosphere that’s fit for the entire family.  The menu, inexpensive and affordable in today’s tough economic climate, is stacked with everything from a $5 breakfast and an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner for $6 to the all-too-popular Philly Cheese Chicken or Beef on Swiss or a French roll and the Veggitizer Combo Platter – most of which is cooked by their classic chef and daughter Collette.

“This place is the reason why I created our meet-up. This diner is excellent,” said Elaine Koran, a food critic and now a regular customer at the diner. “The owners talked with us a lot. All the food was fresh and homemade and really, really good. I really didn't expect this place to be as good as it was, I expected something like Denny's. I was wrong. The meals were very inexpensive too.  I expect this to be a recession-proof diner,” she added.

Armed with car shows and sock-hops throughout the month as an additional feature for its customers, the diner has received rave reviews from several publications and critics throughout the Las Vegas Valley, including the Review Journal, the Urban Spoon and OffTheStripDining. “We appreciate all the attention the diner has gotten, but again the most important thing to us is that we use it to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Barry Greenfield said.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Barry is quick to identify himself as a Jewish Christian – an oxymoron to the average believer. “I lived in a radically and religiously mixed neighborhood where traditional Jewish beliefs were bestowed upon me,” he explained.

“For example, when I was eleven I was told it was time to study for my Bar Mitzvah. When a boy has a Bar Mitzvah, he reads from the Torah and becomes a man in God’s eyes – Wow, 13 and a man. I was a man with a bank account, we get extra days off from school, we are the chosen people and the most important thing above all else, we don’t believe in - the word could barely form on my lips - you know…the “C” word (Christ),” he said.
Stuck in the “So Be It, I’m a Jew” mentality, Greenfield went through what he considers his chosen path in life. The self-made Network Television Producer spent twenty years working with some of televisions greats, having photos throughout the diner to prove it. However, after Greenfield’s red carpet was snatched from beneath him, his millions were lost, and he fell victim to embezzlement, Greenfield found himself in another chapter of his life and career – poverty and rock bottom.

“I promised my family a better life and suddenly my dreams and my world disappeared in a puff of smoke,” Greenfield said, who was previously married for 36 years. “I didn’t know what to do; I was depressed, nervous, started drinking and even thought about suicide.”

Now grateful for every up and down he experienced, Greenfield seeks to tell his testimony as often as possible in hopes that it will lead even the most skeptical Jewish person to Christ. “In the middle of all this, I received a phone call from my mother’s friend Angie, who led my mother to Christ. She began to preach to me about how God had been knocking at my door for a long time.

“She told me that I was chosen and because I ignored him, he drop kicked me like a field goal to bring me to my knees so that He may lift me up.  If this is what it means to be chosen, I’d rather be ignored,” Greenfield admitted. “Well I told Angie I would accept her Christ, but only out of desperation, what more could I lose. She led me in a prayer and I accepted Christ into my life as my savior.”

Now on a major crusade Jews for Jesus, Greenfield and his current wife Shari spend half their time running the diner, and the other half using it to promote the gospel.

The team, always in an embrace and can barely stop looking at one another, hosts three bible study groups at the diner, and invite local artists and churches out every second Friday for their Gospel & Grub – a Christian jam session for praise and worship lovers.

Most recently, the Black Music Associations Best Gospel Group, Spirit of Praise Ministries took the quiet corner by storm. “We took Lake Mead and Buffalo over while we were there,” said Rochelle Schoener, the group’s leader.

Posted outside the diner with a canopy, chairs, microphones and instruments the group sang worship songs and some original pieces while promoting the diner and the gospel. Along with the Las Vegas sensation was the spirited Victory In Progress – another inspirational Gospel group taking the valley to new heights in music.

For more information on how to participate in the Gospel in Grub, or just to visit the diner, call (702) 870-6424 or visit the web site at www.sharis50sdiner.com.