Some quick and dirty sharpie sketches of Little Taverns
Do-Nut Diner – Front Royal Virginia (4″x6″)
This was originally part of the Donut Dinette chain. For more on the chain, look here.
Short Stop Diner- Wheaton, Maryland (4″x5″)
I saw this in the Gazette yesterday, a view of the new Silver Diner, to be built down the road, which is to replace the current Kullman-built Rockville Pike location as the flagship location
In light of recent news, I thought it was best to take some photos of the Rockville MD Silver Diner, their original and current flagship location. It was one of the first old-style diners and was built by Kullman.
Some more from the archives, in no particular order.
Short Stop Diner, now Irene’s pupusas. Wheaton, MD
It’s a 1956 Kullman. The neon was nearly as big as the diner itself, but has since disappeared.
Then:
Now:
Diner- Front Royal, VA
It’s a 1956 Mountain View. Front Royal used to be a hotbed of diners. It had this one, Nick’s Good Food diner, the Do-nut dinette, and another ’50s stainless model. The other three have been knocked down, and this one’s now a used car dealer.
Now:
Frost Diner- Warrenton, VA
The Frost is a 1955 O’Mahony.
Inside
Counter
A sign of the times- Disco Fashion T-shirts
Pork Chop- $1.25, Fried Chicken $1.75
Tastee Diner- Silver Spring, MD
Tastee Diner- Laurel, MD
a rare Comac brand diner
Bud’s Broiler – New Orleans, LA
Bud’s Broiler
Allen Theater
Current Photos
Flower Theater
Current Photos
Summit Diner– Somerset, PA
Summit Diner
Moody’s Diner- Waldoboro, ME
Moody’s Diner
Diner- MA
Airport Diner – 15110 Kutztown Rd. – Kutztown, PA.
The Airport diner is a 1960 Silk City, serial number 6027, with zig-zag stainless
Philco sign – Pauley’s Electric Shop
222 Dutch Lanes Bowling
Emmaus Bowling Center – 16 Lanes – AMF – Emmaus, PA
Plaza 2331. Dig that plaid.
Trivet Family Restaurant – Breinigsville, PA – 1970s DeRaffele
Trucking Sign- Emmaus, PA
5th Street Diner – Temple, PA. Kullman replacing a Silk City
Giant Penguin
Backside of the Prospect Diner- Columbia, PA, a 1955 Kullman, as seen from the highway
This was my first real diner trip in a while. I met up today with Mike Engle, author of Diners of New York; the man behind NYdiners.com, and roadside buff and frequent Zippy the Pinhead contributor Ed Engel at the American City Diner, and headed out from there.
The first stop of the day was the American City Diner of 5532 Connecticut Ave NW Washington, DC. It’s a late ’80s Kullman, one of the early retro-styled diners, and one of the ones that did it right. For some photos as it appeared when new, click here. Since then, it’s been added on to, with a large side addition, and a front porch which obscures everything to the left of the vestibule.
The Left side of the diner- 2009
The left side of the diner – 1989
The former Howard Theater. Great rusty marquis on this one.
The now abandoned Wonderbread / Hostess Factory
Ran into a little excitement along the way between these two stops, but all’s well that ends well.
Northeast Academy of Dance Neon sign. Look at the detail at the left hand corner of the sign.
We hit up the Capital City Diner, which was moved here on the 20th. Watch the video of it being moved. This Silk City, formerly of Avoca New York, has made its way to the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast DC.
Photos at its original location and some backstory can be found at :A Real Historic Diner Coming to DC!
This next leg of the trip had some neat neon and signage
A&R Auto Parts
Syd’s Drive In / Liquor
Cross Roads
Tesst theater
Hyattsville Hardware / Franklin’s
Calvert House
Silver Spring’s old Canada Dry bottling plant
A quick stop at the Silver Spring Tastee was made.
Now
Then
More old photos can be found here.
Then a side trip to Forest Glen, parts of which have deteriorated greatly since my last visit.
Dinner at the Tastee Diner in Bethesda
Then
And the trip’s final stop at Bethesda’s former Little Tavern. A 1990 photo of it, when it was still a Little Tavern, can be found on the Diner Hotline.
Here are some photos, taken on a Linden area diner trip a few years back, of the White Rose System, a little ’50s kullman dinette.
Exterior of the Aberdeen eagle. The corner stainless and the curved window are still visible, but that’s about it. Brick and a red mansard roof disguise the true nature of the diner.
Aberdeen Eagle- All baking done on premises. The sign states that they’re open 24 hours, something becoming rarer all the time.
The rooftop neon. Presumably original to the diner, and not added at the time of the remodel.
The interior. Very boxy- lots of hard corners, almost no curves, other than that of the counter and the scalloped edges by the menu-board. It’s leaning towards the more space-age and environmental designs yet to come, while still staying within the confines of a classic 1950s stainless model.
Spindly stools with octagonal bases. Also interesting to note the use of an entirely tile floor. With the design of this diner, I would have expected terrazzo, and not older style mosaic tile.
Blue is the overwhelming color.
You don’t see too many of this model diner; not many with interiors with this kind of styling. What I have been able to find says it’s a mid ’50s Kullman. I’ve seen Kullman dinettes with similar boxy interiors, but this is the only full-sized diner I’ve been to quite like this. It has been covered over, years ago, with tan brick, with a dining room on the right, making it less recognizable from the road, especially when compared with the New Ideal Diner, just half a mile down the road and across the street. Inside it is essentially in-tact.
Here is a shot of Irene’s taken yesterday
Versus how it used to look as the Short Stop
The exterior doesn’t look like the fluting is original, it reminds me of the replacement material used on Mel’s diner, the former Lincoln diner of Lebanon, PA.
The former Short Stop diner was also known as the Time Out Diner. It’s a 1950s kullman dinette.
Other similar models include the:
White Crystal, which has a reversed floorplan, with the corner door on the right, and the White Rose System of Linden, New Jersey.
Both of those diners, however, have canted corners, identifying them as later models. Irene’s is an earlier kullman, with flat vertical sections, and a four window front facade, instead of a five window. Earlier model Kullman dinettes retained the corner door, but had rounded windows.
Diner Hunter 
