For family-friendly dining at a reasonable price, there are few places better than Heinemann's. Therefore the loss of the venerable Silver Spring Drive location in Whitefish Bay was sad.

But we live nearer the Mayfair Road diner -- across from the mall at 2717 N. Mayfair Rd. -- and were saddened to hear this weekend that that location will close, too, in June. But, the good news is that it will reopen in the mini-mall that will be built on the northwest corner of Center Street and Mayfair Road.

Heinemann's is the closest thing Milwaukee has to the old-style coffee shops that I remember from my youth, when there were chain places like Chock Full O' Nuts (maybe they were franchises, who knows) and long-lived places with equally long counters, like Dubrow's on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, around the corner from where we lived.

On any given day, Heinemann's is full of older folks who come to eat, read the paper, pass some time and chat with the waitstaff, on a first-name basis, of course. There are families with kids, men in business suits talking shop, truck drivers and just about everyone else.

That our "neighborhood" Heinemann's will return sure is good news to me.