Already a Framingham institution 68 years in the making, Ken's Steak House may be getting a 1930s-era addition.

Ken's owner Tim Hanna has spent the last two years rehabbing a 1933 diner car, and he hopes to attach the vintage eatery to the Rte. 9 restaurant soon.

In the early 1990s, Hanna bought the diner from Natick attorney Jimmy Caselli for $500. Since then, he's estimated he's sunk $95,000 into the diner, including more than $2,000 for gold paint for the diner's lettering.

"It was caved in, pretty much totaled when he bought it," said Terry Blair, facilities manager for Hanna, standing inside the diner yesterday .

Now sitting in the yard of Hanna's Prospect Street home with plastic covering protecting it from the elements, the diner used to operate near where the Mass. Pike's Park and Ride site is now, until the Pike took the land by eminent domain in 1994. After that, Hanna moved it to 541 Worcester Road, "right next to the executive apartments," but never got the permits to open it.

His latest proposal is before the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Maintaining the historic feel of the diner is a priority for Hanna.

Inside, orange upholstered bar stools will line a counter when it's completed. The barrel-style wooden paneled roof, a signature of the Worcester Dining Cars, will be fully restored.

No two Worcester Dining Cars are exactly alike, said Blair.

By Jim Barlow | The Charleston Gazette | Aug. 12, 2009

The Quarrier Diner, much beloved for its art deco design but vacant for several years, would be torn down if its owners accept an offer from a city agency.

Charleston Urban Renewal Authority board members agreed Wednesday to offer $435,000 to buy three parcels owned by the Young family -- the diner, the Ott Building behind it and a parking lot in between, CURA Director Pat Brown said.

CURA wants only the property, Brown said. The owners would have to tear down the diner and the Ott Building at their expense.

Photo by Ron Dylewski

CURA had considered buying the properties several years ago, but backed away, Brown said. The agency owns several lots just to the west along Quarrier Street -- the sites of the former Holley and Worthy hotels. CURA bought and tore down the hotels in the late 1980s and early '90s, when city leaders were trying to improve conditions along Quarrier Street.

Those sites have sat idle until this summer, when two developers submitted similar but rival proposals to build an office building for the FBI there. One of the plans would use the diner and parking lot properties, the other would not. Neither plan includes the Ott Building property.

Supporters of a new downtown library, meanwhile, are interested in the Ott Building and parking lot sites, but not the diner.

CURA board members on Wednesday approved JDL Castle Corp.'s modified plan for its proposed FBI building. To save land acquisition costs, the plan no longer includes the former Worthy Hotel site. JDL Castle is one of four developers trying to win a contract from the federal General Services Administration to build for the FBI somewhere in Charleston.

Headline writers have a flair for the dramatic, so it was with a sense of fear and loss that I tore into a recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which seemed to indicate that the 40 year old "Turnpike" ride at Kennywood Park was going to be scraped.

"New coaster to take Turnpike ride's spot at Kennywood," the headline screamed.

But it was only half true. A new high-tech coaster will indeed replace the Turnpike, a languid "driving course" that has been a staple of the park since 1966, but only temporarily.

The P-G article goes on to clarify.

"Guests aren't saying goodbye to the Turnpike, just saying 'see you later,' " public relations manager Jeff Filicko said in a press conference at the park today. The park will bring the Turnpike back sometime after the 2010 season to a different location.

Here's hoping that the leafy nature of the new Turnpike location which be maintained in its new location...and here's hoping that this new coaster doesn't presage a major shift in the nature of this park, one of the most original, charming classics left in the world.

You can read the entire article here. Click the READ MORE to see a video of what a ride on the Turnpike looks like today....

By Andrew Heining | Christian Science Monitor | Aug. 12, 2009

OK, so it’s a rumor. But it’s an Apple rumor, and we all know how excited some folks get at the slightest mention of something new from the Cupertino company.

Truckee, California’s Jax at the Tracks was the site of a closed Apple advertising shoot, proprietor Bud Haley told the Sierra Sun. “Apple found us, they’re trying to show us as a hip and cool spot for the 20-something crowd,” he said.

Word of the ad set off a flurry of speculation on what the unreleased product could be. Both BusinessWeek and 9to5Mac, in analyzing the choice of a diner as the location for a commercial, point to the impending arrival of the much-rumored Apple tablet computer.

“Well I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a diner, and if I’m eating alone, I tend to read a newspaper or magazine,” BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl writes. “It’s pretty clear the device in question is the rumored tablet.”

By Eileen Faust | The Pottstown Mercury | Aug. 5, 2009

They can't put in a drive-in theater, but the area's only museum dedicated to historic vehicles is coming close: It's getting a roadside icon — Fegely's Reading Diner.

Thanks to the Archbury Foundation of Wyomissing, which originally took possession of the rail-car style building when Fegely's Restaurant in Exeter was torn down, the circa 1938 greasy spoon has found a new home at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.

But first, it had to be moved.

The diner was originally slated to become a living history museum for the Archbury Foundation, but after years of sitting out in the weather, the building was suffering and the foundation decided to donate it to the museum.

"The family wanted it to stay in the county," Berks County, said Alice Slisher, a member of the Archbury Foundation who was at the final destination of the big move on Tuesday.

"Fegely's is well-known to thousands of Berks Countians," she said, recalling how many had told her they had laid claim to certain seats and booths over the years, until the rail car was incorporated into the larger restaurant that grew on the site.

The Big Rig Diner officially opened for business in Sydney, Australia, on July 1 when a semi screeched to a halt out front in the middle of the city’s storied Oxford Street. Since then, the city’s young moderns and visiting celebrities like Sienna Miller have been putting four to the floor to get a reservation at this perennially packed late-night restaurant inspired by American roadside diners.

From the surfeit of vinyl and chrome to the waitresses in Daisy Dukes to Canned Heat blaring from the vintage jukebox, the Big Rig speaks in a thick American accent. Were it not for the occasional request by one of the booth-hopping locals to see the “woine” list, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were anywhere but in the middle of Sydney. The cultural disconnect is echoed in the comfort-food menu, which consists of hearty ‘merican staples like hot dogs, burgers, steak, and mac and cheese that would hold their own stateside. I didn’t try the much-touted hot chili bowl, but by all accounts it’s enough to floor you. (Perhaps it has something to do with the bottle of Jack Daniels that the chef Zachary Sykes, formerly of the award-winning Fish Face, assured me he adds to every mix.)

Kenosha, WI
Hard times are still in the headlights.

Roadways are crumbling, housing prices are tumbling. The dollar is tighter than Dolly Parton’s wig. But there is a comfort zone within an hour’s drive — when roads aren’t under construction — of Chicago: Kenosha.

Roadways are crumbling, housing prices are tumbling. The dollar is tighter than Dolly Parton’s wig. But there is a comfort zone within an hour’s drive — when roads aren’t under construction — of Chicago: Kenosha.

“Happy Days” are here again.

Where’s the Fonz?

Kenosha is 50 miles north of Chicago. Cross the Wisconsin border on I-94, take exit 165 and head eight miles east. Take a left on Sheridan Road, proceed north and fall back in time. There’s the 60-year-old Keno Family Outdoor Theatre, 9102 Sheridan Rd., Wisconsin’s oldest drive-in movie theater. In downtown Kenosha you can ride a 1951 Presidents Conference Committee street car.

Kenosha is home to Franks Diner, one of America’s premier diners. The city has at least three vintage drive-in restaurants: Big Star, the Spot and Andy’s Drive-In. A guy who works at Kenosha’s oldest bakery just opened a vintage tiki bar.

Wilton, ME
Returning the Farmington Diner to its original state is a work in progress for owner Rachel Jackson Hodsdon.

The diner has remained where it was placed at the corner of Route 2 and Cemetery Road in East Wilton almost a year and a half ago. There didn't appear to be much happening until recently, when Hodsdon hired Paul Taylor of Farmington to remove the roof.

Hodsdon feels this is a first step in bringing the diner back to its original state. It will also help her deal with the tarps covering the side of the diner where the added-on kitchen was removed and supporting beams were cut during the move from Farmington, she said.

Hodsdon, who has applied and made it through the first phase of getting a Maine Historical Preservation Commission tax credit on her project, also felt it was one thing she could do without worrying. The commission would probably require the roof removed anyway, she said.

The funds for the tax credit encourage people to preserve by returning a percentage of what she invests if the diner is income producing and remains in business for five years, she said.

Not wanting to just rehab the diner but to bring it back to its original state, she now needs to get more history about the diner for the next phase to acquire the tax credit and to determine whether it actually is a Mountain View Diner built in Pennsylvania.

If the owners of Capital City Diner had to endure several painful crash-course lessons back in May as they moved their diner to D.C., the partners are now just playing the standard waiting game as the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs reviews their restaurant plans. Most of the DCRA comments are in, says co-owner Matt Ashburn, and so far the biggest change comes from the folks in plumbing, who want Cap City to add two handicapped-accessible bathrooms.

The only problem with that, Ashburn figures, is that the vintage 1940s-era diner has only about 560 square feet — total. The two bathrooms would take up about 70 square feet alone. “That’s a large chunk of our restaurant, and we can’t do that,” Ashburn says.

So he and business partner Patrick Carl are working with their architect to graft a small addition onto the diner that will not detract from its classic, streamlined dining car design. “We’re adamant about keeping the original feel of the diner,” Ashburn says.

Once the plans are redesigned and resubmitted to DCRA for approval, the partners hope to get a quick go-ahead from the city to start construction. Ashburn figures he and Carl need about a month for build-out. Time is of the essence, Ashburn says. The owners start paying rent in September, and “that’s money out of our pockets,” Ashburn says. September 1, in other words, is now their target opening date.

The owners understand that waiting is part of the process with DCRA; they don’t understand why it’s part of the process with the gas company. “I can’t even get Washington Gas to return a call,” Ashburn says. “We may convert to electric if we don’t hear back from the gas company.”