Please welcome Kevin Patrick to the wonderful world of blogging!
Take some time and read his new post on endangered New Jersey diners.
http://kjpatrick.wordpress.com/
Kevin Patrick’s new blog
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Category Archives: Diners/ restaurants
Blue Moon Diner
Here are some shots from Inky over at inkyknits.blogspot.com of the recently restored (by Steve Harwin of Diversified Diners) Blue Moon Diner, a 1941 Silk City Diner now located in Hickory Corners, Michigan, at the Gilmore Car Museum. It was originally located in Meridan, CT, and has been at the museum since 2004.
The Rainbow Diner- Chester, PA
Mike Engle just found the 1957 newspaper page for this Paramount and sent me the tip on it.
I just checked google street view and sure enough it’s still there. Remodeled, yes, but still (barely) recognizable. It doesn’t seem to be in any of the diner finding guides or books, so I suppose this is a new find. I would love to see the interior. Anyone in the Chester area want to go check this one out?
Capital City Diner
I finally made it to the Capital City Diner when it was open.
I have been craving scrapple for six months- a regional specialty they just don’t have it in Halifax. I was in luck at the Cap City and got it with my three pancakes and coffee. 
News from the Silver Diner
This just posted from the folks at the Silver Diner:
Hi everyone! Thanks for weighing in on the new location. We are sorry the news was so disappointing and believe us after putting our blood sweat and tears into the Rockville location, we are sad to be leaving, however our lease has expired. And, unfortunately, it is not feasible to cut up the 8 different modular sections that make up the diner & reassemble them as an operating restaurant. So after 20 great years, we are headed down the road to create the Next Generation Diner incorporating all the best features we’ve built into Silver Diner for the last 20 years. But, don’t be so quick to say goodbye, if you miss the old diner you can visit it around the country. The old diner will be available at different museums to help preserve the Silver Diner history!
I’m curious what they mean about visiting it around the country at different museums? Are they talking Dan’s Diner Salvage? Is it feasible to chop it up and ship it hundreds of miles but not the couple of blocks down the pike? Are they just taking select bits from it and bulldozing the rest?
Motorized Lunch Wagons- the missing link
The lunch wagon evolved into the modern day diner as it got bigger and became stationary. At the same time some lunch wagon manufacturers, Buckley in particular it would seem, embraced then new automotive technology, modernizing lunch wagons by making them self propelled. Though the diner manufacturers seem not to have continued in earnest with this evolutionary line, self propelled lunch wagons are all over the place today, out of the backs of box trucks or built up on the frames of pickups.
Dec. 1900
1901
1903
1905
1919.
I’m not sure as to the manufacturer on this, but its lunch wagon lineage is clear. Ornate and looks very heavy.
Laurel Diner updates
It looks like the Laurel diner (now the Tastee) goes back quite a ways. I’ve found newspaper records of it going back to 1934, when three men an a woman tried to kidnap one of the waiters. The Laurel diner has also had a liquor license going back as far as September of 1939.
I’m fairly confident this is a drawing of the actual diner and not just period clip art. Assuming that’s the case, can anyone make an id or at least a guess as to manufacturer, if it dates from a 1934 or a bit before?
1934
1939
The Silver Diner- Rockville, MD
This one’s no cheap imitation, this is the real deal. Kullman no.88560. We’ll see how long it survives.
Silver Diner (New)- Rockville, MD
This new, Uniwest built diner will be replacing the original 1989 Kullman built Rockville Silver Diner, just a quarter of a mile down the road from this on-site construction. We’ll see what happens to the Kullman.
Meadow’s Dining Car- Rockville, MD
Here’s a picture of the lot that used to be home to Meadow’s Dining Car, built in the early 1930s and relocated to Rockville from Silver Spring in 1946 when it was replaced by the larger Tastee Diner.
Diner Hunter 