diners

NYC's CLASSIC DINERS

Restaurant reviews make me laugh. Especially the pictures that go with them. Who could eat the stingy portions shown? Crumbs and morsels on huge plates. And restaurant reviewers all like fish, as undercooked as possible. Don't get your webmaster wrong. Fish has its place. Deep-fried, with plenty of batter.

MOONDANCE DINER, 6th Avenue and Broome Street.
Trim: Chrome. Age: 1930s vintage. The sign, with its revolving moon, is from the mid 80s or early 1990s.

Closed July 1, 2007 and has been moved to a small town in Wyoming. A uniquitous apartment tower, the only acceptable construction in NYC, will take its place.

For those of us who think there are four food groups...salt, sugar, grease and beer...who believe there is no food ketchup can't improve...who believe that "vegetarian" means "taste-free" (which it does)...here's a Forgotten NY tribute to the remaining chrome-plated, cholesterol-jammed eateries scattered around town. Whoever said eating is supposed to be healthy? You eat what tastes good. And, you can't eat in more style than in imitation railroad cars. We're gonna make the cardiologists plenty of $$$$....

RIVER DINER, 11th Avenue and 37th Street. Trim: Chrome and blue. Age: 1930s

RIP: March 2004

MARKET DINER, 11th Avenue and 43rd Street. Age: early 1960s

MUNSON DINER, 11th Avenue and 49th Street. Trim: Chrome and blue. Age: 1940s. The Munson has three vintage neon signs.

RIP: August 2004. 11th Avenue has lost 2 of its 3 classic diners in the same year; the Market was also threatened, but saved.

No other avenue in New York City has as large a concentration of classic diners as 11th Avenue. In fact it can be called Diner Avenue because there are no less than three such establishments there between 37th and 49th Street. 11th was formerly known as Death Avenue because until the late 1930s, a railroad ran down the center of the avenue, causing a number of fatal accidents.

11th Avenue retains its industrial aura and weekdays find it jammed with cars and trucks, many of them manned and womanned by people looking for a quick lunch. One of NYC's venerable restaurants, the Homestead, is on 11th and 46th. For those looking for something cheaper, there's always...

The Munson Diner was on 11th Avenue and 49th Street long before the Yankees brought in the late great hard-hitting catcher Thurman Munson. It's held down the southwest corner since the mid-1940s.

Photo: © Ronald Saari

2004: The Munson closed and no longer can be used as the mockup for Reggie's, where the Seinfeld gang went when they weren't at Monk's.

May 2005: The Munson was moved to a new location in upstate Liberty, New York in the Catskills. WhatISee saw the move in person.

The hipsters and cognoscenti of Chelsea have caught on to the Empire Diner's appeal and its prices have risen accordingly. It remains a dandy example of vintage chromework.

EMPIRE DINER, 10th Avenue and 22nd Street. Trim: Chrome, red and white with a replica of the Empire State Building. Outdoor seating available in season.

Photo: © Ronald Saari

R.I.P. The Sam Chinita Spanish restaurant, located on 8th Avenue and 19th Street, occupied a vintage diner. It was torn down and a regular run of the mill eatery was installed in its place in 2000.

CHEYENNE DINER, 9th Avenue and West 33rd Street. Trim: Chrome, black and white (repainted since picture at left was taken in 1999). Age circa 1940s.

This classic round the clock diner serves both weary travelers arriving from nearby Penn Station, but also postal workers from the James Farley post office complex across 9th Avenue. The facility is still expected to be partially converted into a new Penn Station sometime this decade.

A western motif is also apparent in the menu... the Cheyenne serves steer-burgers.

FORGOTTEN NY REVIEW:

The burger is the cynosure of any diner, and like Wimpy I eat a LOT of them (but unlike Wimpy, I pay right away). Excellent burgers here, about a half pound of meat. The Mohegan, my burger of choice, comes slathered in onions and bacon and barb-b-cue sauce and you wish the experience could never end.

Size doesn't matter: the tiny Victory, on Hoyt and State Streets in the Brooklyn's Gowanus area, offers the classic chrome decor and diner fare.

It's triangular, not square. The Square can be found on Varick near West Broadway.

Recognizable to moviegoers from its appearance in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas", the AIRLINE, on Astoria Boulevard and 70th Street, serves both the nearby LaGuardia Airport, Grand Central Parkway motorists, and likely more than a few prison guards on the way to and from nearby Rikers Island.

AIRLINE DINER, Astoria Blvd. and 70th Street. Trim: chrome and red. The Airline was built in 1952. It has become part of the Jackson Hole burger franchise, which, fortunately, hasn't replaced its classic red and green neon sign.

FORGOTTEN-NY REVIEW:

Of all the diners here I've so far frequented, the Airline, part of the Jackson Hole franchise, provides the best experience: pink booths, overhead fans, vintage Coke and gum machines and old signage. If you get the right seat, you can watch airplane after airplane landing at LaGuardia.

The burgers? Just OK. Generous heaps of fixin's, including the fried onions that were sweet as sugar, but the burger itself was sort of mealy, light gray in color and my teeth stuck twice on the gristle. Not the best.

The franchisists have, unfortunately, obscured some of the chrome with potted bushes. Interestingly, a wall adjacent to the Airline has been covered with some ingenious art by Lady Pink and others featuring underwater scenes like the octopus and pensive female figure.

Unfortunately no food is being served at the Deerhead these days. An upstart interloper, a remodeled Buccaneer, was built next door and apparently siphoned off its clientele. The new Buccaneer replaced another classic chrome diner, the Red Wagon.

Forgotten Fan Doug Douglass reports that NBC recently 'blew up' the Deerhead for a sequence on Third Watch. A lighting fixture store is replacing the Deerhead. Another one bites the dust. It's now a dry cleaners.

Yo ho ho. The BUCCANEER has eclipsed the Deerhead.

DEERHEAD DINER, Astoria Blvd. and 97th Street, Jackson Heights. The Deerhead's design is from the early 1960s, much resembling that of the Market Diner on 11th Avenue, above.

BLUEBIRD DINER, Glenwood Road near Utica Avenue, Flatbush, Brooklyn. Trim: Chrome and blue. Built in 1951.

The Bluebird served nearby major truck routes, Kings Highway and Utica Avenue. Unfortunately it has gone the way of all diners, but while it still stands there's hope for revival.

Now, we've seen a lot of chrome on this page, but this is ridiculous. The Relish Diner, at Wythe Avenue and North 1st Street in increasingly fashionable Williamsburg, is across the street from a motorcycle dealer. How Fifties can you get? Chrome diners and motorcycles.

RELISH DINER, Wythe Avenue and North 1st Street, Brooklyn. Trim: Chrome, what else... Outdoor seating available. Probably dates to the early 1950s.

One of a pair of classic diners in the neighborhood (we'll save the other for another diner page) the Relish was built when this part of Brooklyn had a waterfront railroad and numerous breweries. Those are both gone, but with Williamsburg gaining new residents as it has been, the Relish will be there. Its prices, though, may be rising in comparison to other diners.

Photo: © Ronald Saari

The Victory, on the side of a hill on Richmond Road, was once on Victory Boulevard, hence its name. It was moved to this location sometime in the 1960s.

VICTORY DINER, Richmond Road near Seaview Avenue, Dongan Hills, Staten Island. Trim: Chrome and blue. Built in 1941.

FORGOTTEN-NY REVIEW:

Very nice burger; the Victory hits the spot after a long day of S.I. spelunking.

July 2004: I have to take points off for slashed seats on a July 4, 2004 visit.
July 2007: The Victory is being moved to Father Capodanno Boulevard along the boardwalk.

Eat at a diner today. The chrome shines, the menus are long, the waitresses are friendly and the food is good.

MORE CLASSIC NYC DINERS TO COME!

The Abandoned Luncheonette

SOURCES

Ronald Saari's dinercity.com illustrates classic diners from all over the United States

Coffee cup graphic, and plenty of New York State diner information

American Diner Then and Now, Richard J.S. Gutman, Johns Hopkins University Press
BUY this book at Amazon.COM

You mean I'm incorrect about something? I'm nice about it. erpietri@earthlink.com