New Place to Graze

By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the August 2025 issue.

By Peter Gianopulos

The White Sheep opens in Naperville

Breakfast isn’t complicated. So why is everyone so hell-bent on scrutinizing a well-poached egg as if it were concealing the secrets of life? All this early-morning philosophizing, this search for hidden meaning in Belgium waffles doesn’t sit too well with Dionisios “Danny” Pappas. Maybe, to borrow a well-worn phrase, an omelet is an omelet. Nothing more, nothing less.

Together with brother Tony Pappas, Danny owns and operates multiple breakfast spots, including Darlene’s in Orland Park and a number of White Sheep locations, the newest of which is scheduled to open in Naperville at the end of August.

Why do so many of Danny’s regulars enjoy the White Sheep’s hash brown bowls—massive spud-a-palooza skillets piled high with steak tenderloin, fried onions, and pepper Jack cheese or decked out like a Denver omelet in skillet form? Because the White Sheep doesn’t mess with frozen hash browns; they peel, cut, and griddle real potatoes, as if the eyes of the entire state of Idaho were on them.

At the White Sheep, Danny and company wanted to create “an upscale experience that didn’t require a downtown budget.” The days of mom-and-pop diners—God rest their Naugahyde souls—seem mostly over. These days, people want coffee that can out-caffeinate their local Starbucks—which is why the White Sheep roasts all of its beans in-house to ensure the smoothest possible pour.

And folks also demand freshness. Which is why there’s a scratch bakery in the back, which produces biscuits, mini cakes, and 11 different varieties of yeast doughnuts. Danny believes people secretly yearn for craft breakfast cocktails, too. Which isn’t a problem, given that Danny used to run a club called the Black Sheep.

Fortunately for us, his “hangover sandwich,” stuffed with chicken tinga and spiked with rosemary bacon sauce, was ported over as well. But what are we to make of the fact that the White Sheep serves breakfast gnocchi?

It just sounded like a good idea, Danny says, but then something dawns on him. “Some people think of gnocchi as pasta,” he says, “but the best gnocchi are made from potatoes.”

And who doesn’t, he says with a laugh, enjoy potatoes for breakfast?

Photos: Precision Social