Family-Owned for
Five Decades

Oxford Cafe is a family-owned fast casual restaurant operated by restauranteurs with over five decades of experience in serving customers in New York City.

Emmanuel "Manny" Xenopoulos came to the United States on October 19, 1962, from Greece onboard the vessel Olympia. As a 14-year-old boy, he came to a place that offered someone with nothing an opportunity to build a life and career. Through determined will and hard work, Manny and the other members of the Xenopoulos family became pioneers in the NYC fast casual restaurant market.

From the moment he moved to Washington Heights, Manny worked in the food services business, specifically in donuts. The first restaurants that the Xenopoulos family established in 1976 were Max Donuts on King's Highway Brooklyn, and Pop's Donuts in Newark.  

Since 1976, the Xenopoulos family has opened countless fast casual restaurants across Manhattan and were trailblazers in many trends we see today, such as being one of the first restaurants to ever offer a create your own salad bar. After years of various iterations and building a knowledge base into menus that customers adore, Oxford Cafe (The Educated Choice) opened in 1995, with multiple locations across Manhattan.

Manny's sons Alex and Evan joined the business in 2009 and 2015 respectively. They opened the family’s sister restaurant The Mill, a modern evolution of Oxford Cafe, and it is the product of decades of family experience combined with the new ideas of the next generation.  

The coronavirus pandemic hit the family restaurant chain badly, and the last remaining Oxford Cafe shut down in March 2020. Seeing an opportunity, Manny’s sons refused to give up and are reimagining and rebuilding the Oxford Cafe brand to be the great success it once was. 

The facets of incredible customer service, phenomenal food quality and attention to detail are what have allowed the Xenopoulos family to thrive in New York City for five decades. 

We look forward to serving you, and we hope you enjoy Oxford Cafe.