Green River, Wyoming
OK, Spidey fans, here's one for you: What's the name of the famous New York City diner where Peter Parker's girlfriend, Mary Jane, waited tables in the 2002 "Spiderman" movie?

Fans of the web slinger know it's the late-night watering hole called the Moondance Diner, located in the fashionable SoHo District of Manhattan -- and soon to be serving customers in LaBarge, Wyo.

LaBarge???

That little piece of New York City history is coming to southwest Wyoming on the back of a semitrailer next week, thanks to the efforts of LaBarge residents Vince and Cheryl Pierce.

The Pierces finalized the purchase of the famous diner last week and are moving the nearly 80-year-old piece of Americana to the tiny town of LaBarge, located right on the Lincoln/Sweetwater county border.

The plan to renovate and then run the diner for the approximately 500 residents of the remote community who currently enjoy no operating restaurants at all.

Turns out Staten Islanders can't bear to lose their Victory Diner.

That was the consensus of the Parks Department, a bank foundation, the Staten Island Advance and borough leaders who've come up with cash and a plan for buying and moving the classic chrome-and-neon restaurant from Dongan Hills to the Ocean Breeze waterfront.

Serving as the backdrop over the decades in movies, commercials and the lives of thousands of Islanders, the diner closed recently and had been listed for sale on-line on a diner museum Web site for $15,000 or best offer to anyone who could move it from its Richmond Road location, where it had been slated for demolition.

Now the Parks Department is poised to take possession, with Borough Commissioner Thomas Paulo saying the restaurant could be relocated to the beach -- although not opened -- as early as the week of Aug. 6, making it a local victory for the Victory.

"It looks like we've got everything in place to save this and to move it," said Paulo, who has a rigging company lined up.

"This same moving company is moving one diner out of lower Manhattan to another part of the country. Many of these diners are being transported out of New York," he added. "(The Victory) is something that's got to be saved ... this kind of little modest place became very significant to a lot of people. It was part of people's lives -- a common line. We don't have much of that anymore."

Others agreed.

Burgers and egg creams

The Richmond County Savings Bank Foundation put up $10,000 to buy the diner from owner and long-time cook, Maria Pappas.

And the newly created Staten Island Community Preservation Conservancy, a nonprofit established by Borough President James Molinaro and developer R. Randy Lee to preserve endangered buildings and open space, will contribute the approximately $20,000 necessary to move the diner to Ocean Breeze. The restaurant will eventually sit in an area located at the end of the FDR Boardwalk and the start of the Midland Beach promenade, near Freedom Circle and at the foot of Seaview Avenue.

Lake George, NY
The village of Lake George is planning to give the new Prospect Mountain Diner a hero’s welcome when it returns this fall.

Restaurateur Art Leonhard said he has purchased a new silver diner to replace the historic Route 9 diner that was destroyed by fire in May.

Leonhard said he looked at original diners for sale in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio before settling on a brand new replica made by the Dinermite company in Atlanta, Ga. Work to customize the diner for

Leonhard will likely take until October, he said.

“It’s going to be the same,” he said. “It’s going to be the same location and same staff.”

Lake George Mayor Robert Blais said he is planning to hold a parade for the return of the diner.

The old Prospect Mountain Diner was a shiny, bullet-style structure built in 1950. The original owner, Phil Patenaude, brought the diner to Lake George and established the Point Diner on the corner of routes 9 and 9L, where Water Slide World is now.

When Route 9 was expanded from two lanes to four, the diner lost some of its space, and in the mid-1960s it was moved a bit further north on Route 9, in front of the Lake George Bowl. In 1968, Leonhard bought it and renamed it the Prospect Mountain Diner.

Blais said the celebration to welcome the diner will have a 1950s theme, complete with muscle cars from that decade.

Waterford, NJ
The entrees at the Atco Diner are often not as appealing as what you can get on the side, the locals say.

It's not that the meals aren't mouthwatering.

Dennis Kain, a township resident and regular here, said he jokes to friends that he sold his stove because he's always here.

But Kain and others are also drawn here to catch up on township gossip and gripes. And no one can dish on that better than Dolores "Lori" Toussaint, whose family has owned this White Horse Pike diner for the last 42 years.

She usually holds court behind the lunch counter, barricaded behind rows of candy, gum and other snacks. She's quick to refill a cup of coffee or hustle into the kitchen to get an order. She is just as quick with advice, especially if the problem involves local government, the regulars say.

Groton, CT
A sign from the original Oh Boy diner on Route 184 is framed in the front entrance of the new, modernized version a half-mile further up the road.

On it, the statue of a child holding up a hamburger is reminiscent of the Big Boy restaurant brand, but the boy is wearing striped pants, instead of checkered ones.

John D'Angelo has now taken what his father, Phil D'Angelo, began in the 1950s and given the boy a whole new look.

The new boy is well groomed. His smile is open-mouthed, his cowlick combed down, and suspenders exchanged for a collared shirt.

The diner, too, with its outer-space themes, has a new identity.

D'Angelo hopes his Oh Boy, which was set to open its doors today at 6 a.m., will eventually become a franchise in the state.

Locals, however, will likely remember it as the diner that replaced the longtime Rosie's Diner.

It started out as the A&P Diner, and then the Twin Bridge, which D'Angelo's father also ran, before it became Rosie's.

For some, the Edgemere Diner is a run-down eyesore along a sparse portion of Rte. 20, while others see it as a historic building worth preserving.

The weathered, red and white façade of the traditional looking diner sits at 51 Hartford Turnpike where people generally speed by at 40 mph on their way to or from Worcester.

Although the diner has faced difficult times in recent years, which is evident from the overgrown weeds and cracked pavement defining the parking lot, a local diner enthusiast came forward recently to offer his assistance to the town with its ongoing attempt to sign a new lease for the land.

Greg Anderson, a volunteer with the American Diner Museum of Providence, has been in contact with Town Manger Dan Morgado since learning about the town’s hope for the property.

“The museum would be available to help with trying to find a new home for the diner or a new lease for the land,” said Anderson in a recent interview.

“We’ve rescued many diners over the years from being demolished.”

The museum recently helped a 1939 diner formerly located in Fall River move to a small town in Utah town named Oakley rather than let it be demolished.

By Judy Laurinatis | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette July 19, 2007

It's summer and sometimes writers' fancies turn to road trips on historic highways lined with quirky things to see.

At least that's what happened with two writers who will sign their new books from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at one of those quirky sites -- Ligonier Beach on Route 30 just east of downtown Ligonier in Ligonier Township.

Mr. Wallis, a native of Tulsa, Okla., along with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Michael S. Williamson, took off on the Lincoln Highway, or U.S. Route 30, from New York City's Times Square to the State Line Truck Stop in Wyoming to the California coast in Sutro Heights.

Some 300 color photos are included in Mr. Wallis' new book. He also wrote "Route 66," which has sold more than 500,000 copies.

Mr. Butko, who edits the magazine Western Pennsylvania History for the Sen. John Heinz History Center, traveled west with his wife, Sarah, on Route 66, stopping at dinosaur parks, the largest ball of twine shrine, the stand dedicated to petrified wood and more.

On the return trip, the couple, who live in West Mifflin, took Route 30, the highway Mr. Butko featured in his earlier book, "Greetings from Lincoln Highway." He has written more than a half-dozen books featuring travel through regional history, including one about Pennsylvania's roadside eateries, "Diners of Pennsylvania."

The Miss Portland Diner is expected to reopen by December at its new location on Marginal Way, in Portland's redeveloping Bayside neighborhood. The City Council unanimously approved a beer-and-wine license for the landmark diner on Monday, and Thomas Manning plans to finalize his purchase of the authentic Worcester Lunch Car and 6,000 square feet of city land in August.

Manning said on Monday that he will invest more than $1 million in the project, including construction of a kitchen and a dining- room addition that he hopes will start by the end of August.

It's a lot to manage for the Newsweek magazine executive, who grew up on Munjoy Hill and lives in New Jersey with his wife and their young family.

"I feel like the guy in the circus with the plates on sticks, trying to keep them all spinning," Manning said, "but I'm excited. It's time to get on with it."

Manning, who is director of administration at the New York City- based magazine, has been negotiating with Portland officials for more than a year to buy the 58-year-old diner.

Haverill, MA
Something is spreading downtown and it's not blight.

Two major development firms, which together are investing $109 million to build apartment complexes in downtown factory buildings, are buying up nearby properties to beautify the neighborhoods around their complexes.

While no one argues the properties shouldn't be cleaned up, local historians say an old diner one developer intends to buy should be preserved - keeping a slice of American culture from the wrecking ball.

Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland and Beacon Communities of Boston want to clean up the neighborhoods around their apartment complexes to make them more appealing to potential tenants, city Planning Director William Pillsbury said.

"They want to protect their investment and improve their investment," Pillsbury said.

The trend can be contagious, he said.

Pillsbury expects the beautification efforts to spread as residents and new businesses move in and the market demands improvements.