By Nancy Shields | Asbury Park Press | March 6, 2008

With the long-neglected century-old Metropolitan Hotel now razed, city officials are expected to keep their options open for at least a little while on what might take its place.

Demolition started this past week, and the bulk of the decayed white classic structure at 309 Asbury Ave. was knocked down Wednesday. The 180-unit hotel-annex complex had sat empty and ignored since 1987 and last fall was determined to be an imminent hazard.

Donald Cresitello, the mayor of Morristown, who purchased the hotel in 1993, had been seeking to raze it last year.

The city approved that demolition request at first, but then pulled back because the building had been designated to be preserved or rehabilitated. Cresitello tried again, providing the city with a structural engineering report that said the hotel needed to be razed.

Robert Corby, the city's building construction official, agreed last fall, but demolition was held up until asbestos issues could be cleared up.

""I just think it's a shame, because the glory days of the great hotels in Asbury are coming to an end, and what's going to replace them?'' said Don Stine, a trustee of the Asbury Park Historical Society, which had sought to save the building. "

Howard "Chip" Silverman, one of the original "diner guys" who chronicled life and coming of age in 1950s and 1960s Northwest Baltimore and later became director of the state Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration, died Thursday evening of melanoma at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 65.

Dr. Silverman, an addictions clinician and behavioral health consultant, had lived at Harper House condominiums in Cross Keys since 2003.

From 1970 to 1975, he coached Morgan State's lacrosse team, which gained national recognition during his tenure.

"I've known him since 10th grade homeroom. It's been that long. If I was to look at Chip's life in movie terms, he'd be George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life. And like George Bailey, he affected people in so many ways," said Barry Levinson, director of the 1982 movie, Diner.

"Chip was a funny and sarcastic person. He loved writing about people and characters in the community. A lot of people knew him. He knew how to make a friendship special and personal," Mr. Levinson said. "At the end of the day, he had a great love of life and truly enjoyed his time."

Dr. Silverman was born in Baltimore, the son of a grocer and a homemaker, and grew up on Queensberry Avenue in the city's Pimlico neighborhood.

"We lived three blocks away from Pimlico racetrack and we loved telling people that we had stables. It was a family joke," said a sister, Harriet Silverman of Tucson, Ariz., with a laugh. "What was important to us growing up in those years was the Queensberry Playground. It was central to our lives."

Leonard "Boogie" Weinglass, founder of the old Merry-Go-Round clothing chain, first got to know Dr. Silverman when both were kids.

"I was at the Towanda Playground and we'd play Queensberry. I really got to know him when we were teenagers and later at Forest Park High School and at the Hilltop Diner on Reisterstown Road, where Chip, Barry and me were fixtures," said Mr. Weinglass. "I have to say, he was always very funny - even way back then."

Mr. Levinson's 1982 movie Diner immortalized a group of friends who on late nights at the Hilltop discussed life, girls and sports over platters of food.

Movie makers have spent millions of dollars in Connecticut since the state put attractive tax credits in place.

That's a big reason they've been choosing to come to here to shoot their films, but it's not the only reason.

Just off of Main Street in quiet North Canaan sits a little piece of Americana in the Litchfield Hills. It's the quintessential old-fashioned diner and that's just the way the owner Ameen Storm Abu-Hamsy wants it.

"The people that come in here become family," Abu-Hamsy said. "They are family."

The Collins Diner has been serving the locals since 1941. Although, staring this weekend, it'll be serving Hollywood as a set for a movie called 'The Vicious Kind.' This movie is about a college kid who brings his new girlfriend home during Thanksgiving Break.

"This diner's amazing, especially the aesthetic from the outside. It's perfect for our film," Location Manager Jonny Urband said.

By Steve Ferris | The Herald-Standard, March 6, 2008

Uniontown, PA
Normally at this time of year, the State Theatre Center for the Arts is preparing for the last few performances of the season and is busy booking musicals, plays and concerts for the upcoming season that begins in the fall.

The last two shows of the current season and some movies will go on, but members of the board of directors said the curtain could close for good after the season unless a fund raising effort lifts the 85-year-old theater out of a nearly $500,000 debt.

Jeremy Burnworth said he discovered the debt while reviewing financial statements after he became treasurer of the Greater Uniontown Heritage Consortium, which owns the theater, last September.

"We were very surprised to find out we were in debt that much," said Robin Semans, first vice president of the board.

Semans and Burnworth discussed the theater's financial dilemma in a meeting Wednesday with members of the Herald-Standard editorial board.

They said the theater has about $200,000 in bills payable and its $300,000 line of credit from a local bank has been maxed out.

Burnworth said the line of credit has been particularly harmful, noting that that interest on the account is $2,000 a month.

"That needs to go away," Burnworth said.

By Jeff Gearino | Casper Star Tribune | March 3, 2008

On the back of the Moondance sign near the freshly poured foundation where the historic old diner will eventually sit, just-plain Valerie from Manhattan promises in pretty cursive writing that she'll be back for coffee.

Pat and Ken R. from New York City likewise admonish the new owners to "take care of our beloved Moondance Diner."

Most everybody, it seems -- from East Coast tourists to those living in and around tiny LaBarge in southwest Wyoming -- is eagerly awaiting the opening of the famed Moondance Diner, said new owner Cheryl Pierce.

Having survived nearly a century of service, a close date with the wrecking ball, a 2,400-mile cross-country move from New York City to Wyoming, and heavy damage from a January snowstorm that nearly derailed the whole endeavor, renovation of the famed eatery is continuing and the restaurant will open as planned, she said.

"A lot of people have been wondering, but there's been no disappearing act ... The Moondance will open," said Pierce, who's known simply as "the diner lady" after numerous media interviews over the past few months.

"The interest from (across the country) is still very much there," she said last week. "We're hoping we can very much be a destination diner for the town and bring something new and exciting to LaBarge. We want it to be fun."

By Patrick Timothy Mullikin | Barre-Monpelier Argus \ Feb. 28, 2008

It's been a bumpy ride so far for Jeff Jacobs and his efforts to wheel a classic 1949 diner car into downtown Montpelier.

Bumpy, but still on course.

If all goes right, and it's a big if at this point, says Kevin Casey of the Jacobs-owned Montpelier Property Management, a vintage diner could be up and running this fall, just a bottle-cap's throw from Charlie-O's.

"We're trying to bring a piece of Americana and to add a little character to downtown. Stuff like this just isn't done anymore, says Casey. "The nice thing is that we're getting a lot of positive feedback from the community, and that is definitely helpful."

In addition to community support, Jacobs has several things going for him:

- He picked an ideal location: 66 Main Street, a lot he owns and that has been vacant since the structure that was once home to Play It Again Sam burned in May 2003. "It's really funny because when I was in Montpelier last year," says diner guru Randy Garbin, who publishes Roadside, an online publication about diners and diner culture, "I remember walking past that lot going, 'This would be a perfect spot for a diner, never thinking in a million years that one would actually be there.'"

- Jacobs has the unit picked out already: The former Sunset Diner, a vintage 1949 diner car now sitting empty in Jim Thorpe, Pa. "It's in really good condition, a really a beautiful unit," says Garbin. "It's very colorful and a really nice well-preserved interior."

- Jacobs has at least four individuals interested in leasing the diner from him and running it: "We have people who have the resources and have expressed an interest in running it," says Casey.

But Jacobs also has a big problem.

The site, an empty lot framed with concrete blocks and that last year became a prime gathering spot for panhandlers, is below the base flood elevation.

After the Vale-Rio closes tonight, its owners will try to reopen elsewhere. But obstacles remain.

By Jess Kamen | The Philadephia Inquirer | Feb., 24, 2008

For the last few weeks, the Vale-Rio Diner's employees have been wearing black ribbons pinned to their shirts to signify that they are in mourning. "It really is like a funeral," said Helen Jackson, 56, a waitress for 15 years. "The closer it gets, the harder it is to talk about."

Phoenixville's beloved Vale-Rio Diner will close at 10 tonight after 60 years on Nutt Road (Route 23).

But if everything goes according to plan - which is iffy - the funeral might be followed by a rebirth. The owners said they planned to reopen the Vale-Rio at another Phoenixville spot.

Brothers Richard and Francis Puleo, who own the diner with John O'Sullivan, said its basic structure would be wrapped in plastic and stored at a site the Puleos own until they found a new location.

In the meantime, "about 44 people will join the unemployment line," assistant manager Danielle Charry said.

The diner's employees received 45 days' notice of the closing, although Francis Puleo insisted that they had been made aware of the possibility a long time ago.

"We heard talk about it for a couple years, but we thought it was just talk," said Jackson, who said she didn't know where she would work next - and couldn't imagine working anywhere else.

"It still hasn't sunk in yet," she said. "I have no idea where to go."

But Jackson said she was more worried about the customers than herself.

"So many customers have been coming here for years," she said. "For a lot of them - especially the elderly folks - if they can't come here, their world stops. We just take care of so many people.

Wilton, ME
The Farmington Diner will be wending its way down U. S. Route 2 from Farmington to Wilton by Monday -- the deadline for the new owner to move if off the lot on Main Street where a new Rite Aid is going up. One of the hurdles new owner Rachel Jackson-Hodsdon had to overcome in this new commercial venture was to get a building permit from the Wilton Planning Board.

The permit was unanimously approved Thursday night with the caveat that if it is to be converted to a restaurant, Hodsdon will need to come back and submit a site review application.

Hodsdon, who has prior restaurant experience but now works with agencies dealing with the homeless in Maine, said she decided to buy the diner at the last minute from the developer, Bruce Carrier of FARMRA, LLC, to preserve a piece of history. And she said she is paying the $15,000 moving cost out of her own pocket.

"Thank heaven for credit cards," she laughed. Construction crews are anxious to get the building off the lot across from Hippach Field because it is in the way of pouring the concrete foundation next week, Carrier said in an earlier interview.

Hold off on making reservations at El Vado just yet.

If the city goes ahead with its plans to purchase or condemn the Route 66-era motel on Central Avenue and restore it as a tourist destination, it could be a good long while before there are rooms at the inn.

At least, that's judging by the city's record of trying to do something similar with the historic De Anza Motor Lodge on Central Avenue east of Nob Hill.

The city bought the De Anza in 2003 from a private owner, in response to a neighborhood uproar that arose when the Albertsons grocery chain proposed to replace the old motel with a drug and liquor store.

At the time, the city plan was to rehabilitate the property, possibly as a boutique motel, to serve as a catalyst for revitalizing the blighted area.

But nearly five years later, the property remains fenced and boarded and little has changed in the neighborhood.

By way of contrast, the 261-room Embassy Suites hotel at I-25 and Lomas Boulevard Northeast went from an empty lot to a grand opening in less than a year and a half.

"Are these things easy to do?" asked Richard Dineen, director of the city's Department of Planning. "No, they're not. There are very few of these old-era hotels that have been turned around. It's new science."