Tom and Georgia Belesiu opened the diner in 1975; ownership was later transferred to their daughter Antoinette, who worked for the business as a teenager, and her husband Taki Papailiou.

Tom's Restaurant and Bar is located on Division Street at the intersection of Cesar Chavez Boulevard in southeast Portland's Richmond neighborhood.

[1] The newspaper described Tom's as a "Dazed and Confused-era diner, which seems increasingly out of place on this rapidly changing stretch of Division Street", and as "an old school dentist's office waiting room, but with a sassy waitress who doesn't come to a complete stop as she asks 'You want cream?'

[2] The Portland Mercury has described Tom's as a "seriously underrated, East Coast-style" diner and a greasy spoon with "outlandishly cheap" happy hour options.

[3] Tom and Georgia Belesiu opened the restaurant on December 18, 1975, in a space which previously housed an ice cream parlor and later a bakery.

[10] In 2014, Willamette Week described the Skee-Ball "situation" as "twin 10-foot lanes, 25 cents, no change machine, scoreboard lights are burnt out and wonky".

[3] The newspaper's Brian Yaeger wrote in a 2017 overview of dive bar brunches, "Other upsides include never having to wait in line, a coffee cup that will never hit empty thanks to attentive waitstaff.

"[5] Michael Russell included Tom's in The Oregonian's 2018 list of 15 "favorite" diners in the Portland metropolitan area.