Glens Falls, NY
Attention, Bill Stanton!

Read this story -- it's about you.

Specifically, it's about your retirement party.

Didn't know you were having a retirement party?

Well, read on, or take a walk downtown and have a look at the posters advertising your farewell bash. A lot of people are going to miss your presence at the Ideal Diner on South Street.

You've been there more than 40 years, serving lawyers and judges, friends and family, and a quirky group of Niagara Mohawk retirees, with a smile and a laugh. And they want you to know they appreciate it, whether you like it or not.

"Bill wouldn't be happy if he had any idea we were doing this for him," said Ron Ball, an organizer of the farewell event, and, of course, a regular customer at the Ideal Diner. "He'd probably take the posters down. He doesn't want people to do things like that for him, but he would do it for them."

Auburn, IN
Summer is usually a big business time for drive-in movie theaters, but this year the Auburn Garrett Drive-In isn't packing in the people as usual because of Daylight Saving Time.

"The shows start at 9:30 and most people are ready, I'm ready, to be done with my day around 9:30," the Silverscreen Cinema manager Peggy Moore said.

With Daylight Saving Time the sun goes down an hour later, which forces the outdoor movie show times to be pushed back an hour too.

The drive-in's taken the biggest hit during the week. One an average weeknight, there's about 30-50 cars there Moore said. Last year those numbers would have been closer to 60 each night. While it may not look like a huge drop, the sliding numbers add up.

"It's tough. You know you have to keep people on the clock just in case customers do show up, and we just hope it will balance out," Moore said.

By ROBERT LINNEHAN | Today's Sunbeam | June 12, 2006

Salem, NJ
When the Salem Oak Diner served its last plate of home fries and eggs on Mother's Day, May 14, Salem diner-goers were thrown into a pit of despair. Gone was "rumor central," the back corner of the diner where all the regulars sat and ate their food and discussed the day's events. Gone were the loyal waitresses, some of whom had been working in the diner for over 30 years. Gone were Bob and Barbara McAllister and the rest of their family who have been serving up meals for more than 50 years.

Regulars, grab your forks yet again. The Salem Oak Diner is set for its grand re-opening sometime this week.

The McAllisters, wanting to keep the diner local, have sold the Salem landmark to longtime waitress Robin Bell and her husband, Bill.

Robin Bell, who waitressed at the diner for the past 18 and a half years, will co-manage the diner with her husband, Bill.

Bell expects the diner will open it's doors once again sometime this week after the final settlement on the purchase is complete.

The "new" Salem Oak Diner will be open at 5 a.m. Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. It will close at 8 p.m. each day.

"I've worked at the diner for the past 18 years," Robin Bell said. "The McAllisters were thrilled when we decided to take it over."

Famous Munson Diner needs operator to get things cooking

Liberty, NY
Liberty - You'd think something as well-known as the world-famous Munson Diner wouldn't be a hard sell. But a year after the landmark eatery's precarious journey from New York City to Liberty, the diner once featured on "Seinfeld" is still empty.

There it sits on Lake Street, a deep-purple steel cipher on the hill overlooking the Main Street road reconstruction. A sign is posted on the diner's side: "World-famous Munson Diner owner/operator wanted."

It all seemed so promising in May 2005, when the diner first arrived, bought by the 15 local investors of the Munson Diner Corp. for a rumored $35,000. Spearheaded by 26-year-old Jeremy Gorelick, the investors raised $250,000 to rehab the 1940s classic diner. They had high hopes of opening by July 4 last year.

"They had a ribbon-cutting a year ago," said Amber Kelder of Liberty, a clerk at the Liberty Home and Garden Center's pet-supply store. "It's just sitting there. I haven't seen anybody working on it."

The diner is now being advertised for sale for $300,000 in several national publications. Gorelick, president of the Munson Diner Corp., didn't return several calls this week.

If the Aurora City Council on Tuesday approves the deal that will benefit a nearby school district, bulldozers may soon raze the outdoor screen at Montgomery Road and Hill Avenue.

"I'm really disappointed," said frequent patron Cheryl Kent of Bolingbrook. "It was close to home, and it was reasonably priced for a family of four to go to and see two movies."

Kent visited a Web site devoted to saving the theater, www.hilitedrivein.com , where supporters like Kathy L. would post comments lamenting the loss of a slice of Americana.

"There's no price tag on nostalgia, please save the drive-in from developers," she wrote.

By Larry Bly | The Roanoke Times | June 7, 2006

Imagine an entire breakfast menu in this day and age with nothing more than $5! In fact, most of the menu items run in the $1.50- $2.50 range. No wonder people line up early (5 a.m.) to eat at the Hillsville Diner, which has been in business as long as I've been on this earth (1946).

Actually built by the Jerry O. Mahoney Company of Winston-Salem, N.C. in 1936, the "Diner" was thought originally to be an old street car. It wasn't. The Mahoney Company specialized in pre-fabricated restaurants. And this one, though operating continuously in Hillsville since 1946, still has most of its original equipment, still used daily for breakfast. The grills have deep pockets, carved out by decades of scraping pancakes and eggs off them with a spatula.

On one end you'll even see an original stained glass window -- back when even "temporary" buildings sported such elegant touches. One notices the tiny bar stools. Butts have gotten a whole lot bigger through the years.

A real dining room has been added (twice) in the back, as has a side kitchen for preparing baked, cooked and assembled luncheon specials. And they turn out some pretty specials. Order the daily special and it's on your table before you have time to reconsider (even if you wanted to). These people are used to serving workers strapped for time.

Ocean City, MD
More than two years since a prominent businessman saved a piece of local history and vowed to restore it, an old downtown diner has failed to make a curtain call, but hope is still alive this week that the landmark will one day be returned to the resort.

It was a leap of faith when Seacrets Owner Leighton Moore purchased the Bunting’s English Diner on Coastal Highway at 21st Street and saved it from the wrecking ball in December of 2004. Originally, the diner was relocated to the Seacrets property and scheduled to be completely outfitted, refurbished and up and running along Coastal Highway near the clothing boutique along the front of the property, which would become the latest addition to a growing complex that also includes a hotel, radio station and the famous nightclub and beach bar.

Seacrets General Manager DJ Shirk said opening the diner has been delayed, but the landmark was not sold, demolished or abandoned. Shirk said Moore still intends to operate the establishment.

“The diner has not died. He still has it,” said Shirk. “I think Leighton wanted to, before pushing the diner issue, focus on the restaurant.”

Pittsburgh, PA
If you follow the ups and downs (admittedly, mostly downs) of classic American roadside businesses, sooner or later you'll turn around and find it's happened right in your backyard. So it is with the closing of Regis Steedle Candies in the Pittsburgh area town of Millvale, just a few miles down the Allegheny River from where we are based. By the end of today, this tiny ice cream and candy shop, which is evocative of the 1940's, will have served its last customer.

For those who haven't heard it before, the name Regis Steedle is likely to make you smile, but not the story of how a family squabble has led to the closing of this institution.

As an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette makes clear,

"Regis Steedle Candies is closing because Regis Steedle Jr. no longer owns the business. His son, Regis Steedle III, does. They were partners in the business until 1999, and since then most of the conversations between father and son have required attorneys."

For the rest of the article and some photos, click here.

For our part, we mourn the passing of another of our hometown favorites...

Huntington, WV
It's not uncommon for Pat Smith to wait on people from Missouri and to fill an order for 100 frozen hot dogs.

Smith has been a waitress at Huntington's Frostop drive-in for 22 years. One of those little home-style places that can creep its way into a diner's consciousness, it's become a favored eatery for college students and Huntington residents who return time after time, even after they've moved on and away from the city.

"Especially in the summer when people are traveling they'll want to at least drive through and eat, or just get their picture taken in front of it," Smith said. "They'll call ahead and have us freeze all their favorites so they can take them back home."

Frostop, first opened in 1957, has established itself as a force to be reckoned with among the restaurant community, which in Huntington at least contains a handful of other little locally owned hot dog stands.