Empire Diner

The Empire Diner is a restaurant in New York City that launched a vogue for upscale retro diners, and whose Art Moderne exterior became an iconic image in numerous films and television programs.

The Empire Diner in 2010

Importance

Constructed by the Fodero Dining Car Company in 1946 and operating as a Manhattan diner until being abandoned years later, the diner was refurbished in 1976. Additions includied a stylized Empire State Building outline on its roof. It became a city fixture and an artists' nexus from then on. The Empire opened on February 29th 1976 (Leap Day). The restaurant closed on May 15, 2010, and The Highliner opened briefly in its space that same year. The restaurant reopened under the name Empire Diner, under executive chef Amanda Freitag, in January 2014.

Creation

The Art Moderne dining car that served as the physical structure of the Empire Diner was constructed by the Fodero Dining Car Company in 1946.[1] Situated at 210 Tenth Avenue, on the corner of West 22nd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan, it was closed and nearly abandoned in 1976 when new owners Jack Doenias, Carl Laanes, and Richard Ruskay renovated "the former greasy spoon on then-grungy 10th Ave. and turned it into the landmark restaurant [that] [...] became a major force in the Chelsea Renaissance that allowed art galleries, hotels, and other restaurants to replace the machine shops, gas stations and auto parts stores that then dominated the landscape."[2]

The diner had previously had its original windows changed and its monitor roof hidden from the outside.[3] The three partners painted "EAT" in large letters on a wall behind the diner, put in a miniature, stainless steel, a stylized outline of the Empire State Building on a corner of the roof, and replaced the Formica tabletops and counters with black glass.[3] The partners also opened Ruskay's, anothe restaurant, on Columbus Avenue, that same year, and would open Rick's Lounge, in downtown Manhattan on Eighth Avenue, in 1981.[4]

The Empire Diner became a popular success, appearing as a New York magazine cover story, "The New Great-Looking Dining Places: Is the Food as Good as the Design?', the year that it opened.[3] Diner historians credit it with sparking a movement toward similar upscale retro diners. Wrote author Richard J. S. Gutman, "The Empire pioneered the concept of the diner being something other than just a diner. With candlelight, live piano music, and an untraditional menu somewhat on the pricey side, this was a new tangent for diners."[3] Author Randy Garbin, founder of Roadside Magazine, wrote that the new owners had taken "a run-down [...] diner in a depressed neighborhood and introduced haute cuisine. The irony struck chords in both the New York art and restaurant scenes, with repercussions throughout the country."[5] Its menu included traditional American fare, but also such signature dishes as "Jack's chili sundae" and pigs-in-a-blanket made with Vienna sausages and biscuit dough.[6] The 24-hour diner's "highbrow-lowbrow fusion ... built a steady clientele among the neighborhood’s culture vultures and its club-going nighthawks alike."[6]

Owners after Ruskay
The diner as seen from across 10th Avenue in 2009.

Following the deaths of Ruskay (d. March 16, 1992)[4] and Doenias, Laanes sold the operation to executive chef Mitchell Woo, who had been with the diner since 1980, and general manager Renate Gonzalez, who had joined in 1986.[2]

Between 2005 and 2010, Thomas Feucht, founder & CEO of The Kullmans Diner Group joined the executive team of Nothing Heavy inc. The Feucht family held the Empire Diner trademark rights in the USA until 2014. Upon returning the trademark rights to NHI inc., the path was clear for Amanda Friday to reopen the diner under the Empire Diner name. The last years of the old Empire Diner were heavily influenced by the Feucht family, i.e. the iconic outdoor cafe with its black furniture and partitions.

In late 2009, lease negotiations between the Empire Diner owners and Chuck Levinson, whose family had owned the property since the early 1930s, ended without a lease renewal. The physical structure was scheduled to be taken over under a new name by restaurateurs Carolyn Benitez, Charles Milite, and Eric Petterson of the Gotham City Restaurant Group, under a 15-year lease.[7] The last day of business for the Empire Diner at this location was May 15, 2010.[8][9][10] Woo and Gonzalez filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, in late April 2010, alleging the landlord wanted to claim the name "Empire Diner" to pass along to the next proprietors.[11] The judge in this trademark lawsuit ruled on December 3, 2010, that the case could go to trial. By this time, the rooftop Empire State Building replica had gone missing.[12]

By late July, Gotham City Restaurant Group, "without substantial renovation", had opened a new restaurant at the site, the Highliner.[13] The New Yorker opined, "The body remains, but the soul has vanished. The Highliner is representative, though, of the new Chelsea that is emerging on weekends, as visitors flood the elevated park the restaurant is named after: touristy, overpriced, and shiny. It is not uncommon to see guidebooks and maps spread out on the nascent eatery’s outdoor tables. Of course, tourists need to eat, too, but at the Highliner they do not get to eat particularly well."[13]

The restaurant reopened under the name Empire Diner, under executive chef Amanda Freitag, in January 2014,[14] at first serving only dinner, then expanding to lunch. Freitag left in July 2015.[15]

Significance

The Empire Diner was frequented by celebrities including Meryl Streep and her then partner, John Cazale, Josh Brolin,[16] Minnie Driver,[16] Ethan Hawke,[16] Madonna,[10] Julia Roberts with then-boyfriend Benjamin Bratt,[16] Steven Spielberg,[10] Barbra Streisand,[10] and Kate Winslet.[16] It was not universally loved, however: A Village Voice critic wrote near the end of the diner's run that, "The building itself is deservedly beloved, but the restaurant's surly service and way overpriced, completely unremarkable grub mean that the only thing we'll miss is the upright piano."[17] Regardless, wrote The New Yorker in 1998, "Every art scene gets the hangout it deserves. In the '50s, there was the Cedar Tavern ... [then] Max's Kansas City, a steakhouse near Union Square, catered to the '60s cool school.... In the '80s, the art world headed down to Tribeca to toast itself at the Odeon. And in the '90s? The new spot is the Empire Diner, a glitz-free, gemutlich place tucked among the warehouses of West Chelsea...."[18] According to HBO WESTERN STARS (2019)Bruce Springsteen used to meet Patty Scalia on a bench across from the Empire diner. He proposed to her there.

The Empire Diner has appeared in numerous films, television programs, and advertisements.

See also

References

Notes

1.^ This was after series creator Jay Tarses and star Blair Brown had "conceived the [title] character ... over long discussions at the Empire Diner."[24]

Citations

  1. "Empire Diner". NYC-Architecture.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  2. Marx, Rebecca (April 26, 2010). "The Empire Diner Will Close on May 15". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  3. Gutman, Richard J. S. American Diner Then and Now (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), pp. 210–212. ISBN 978-0-8018-6536-7
  4. "Richard A. Ruskay, Restaurateur, 44". 'The New York Times. March 21, 1992. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  5. Garbin, Randy (2005). Diners of New England. Stackpole Books. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-8117-3141-6. Jack Doenias.
  6. Cavouras, Krissa Corbett (n.d.). "Empire Diner". New York. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  7. Hedlund, Patrick (November 12, 2009). "Fallen Empire: New Tenant Found for 10th Ave. Diner". Chelsea Now. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  8. Sifton, Sam (April 30, 2010). "Memories of the Empire Diner". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  9. Trapasso, Clare (April 25, 2010). "Iconic Empire Diner to Close Doors in May". Daily News. New York City. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  10. Vertuccio, Rocco (April 25, 2010). "Iconic Chelsea Diner To Serve Up Final Order". NY1. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011. (requires scrolldown).
  11. Gendar, Alison. "Diner Owners: Name Is Off Your Menu", New York Daily News, April 27, 2010, p. 2
  12. Lombardi, Frank (December 5, 2010). "Feud over Empire Diner in Chelsea heats up as both sides lay claim to the iconic name". Daily News. New York City. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  13. Levy, Ariel (August 8, 2011). "Tables for Two: The Highliner". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on August 2, 2011.
  14. Preston, Marguerite (January 7, 2014). "Empire Diner, Amanda Freitag's Revamp of the Retro Icon". Eater.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014.
  15. Morabito, Greg (July 10, 2015). "TV Fixture Amanda Freitag Leaves the Kitchen at Empire Diner". Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  16. Fagen, Cynthia R. (April 25, 2010). "Empire Diner to Check Out". New York Post. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  17. Marx, Rebecca (April 16, 2010). "Our 10 Most Overrated Restaurants". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  18. Solomon, Deborah (January 12, 1998). "The Creative Life". The New Yorker. p. 30. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  19. Mateo, Lisa. "Iconic Empire Diner To Serve Its Last Meal in May", WPIX.com, April 26, 2010. WebCitation archive.
  20. "Empire Diner, A Chelsea Icon, For Lease". Eater.com. October 23, 2009. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  21. "Men In Black II Film Locations". Movie-Locations.com. n.d. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  22. Mullins, Edmund (April 27, 2010). "NYC's Empire Diner To Sling Last Hash". Black Book Magazine. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011.
  23. "John Baeder". official site. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  24. Milward, John (March 28, 1988). "New York Women". New York. p. 30.
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