By Kimberlina Rocha | Visalia Times-Delta | Feb.16, 2008

With its former owner and namesake standing by, Visalia's iconic Mearle's Drive-in was sold for $700,000 to one of its co-owners at a live auction Friday.

The Kazarian family of Fresno outbid competing SMB Investments, a group led by Rick and Susan Mangini and Doug and Amy Silveria, among other couples vying to restore the 1940 structure, by $15,000. Michael Kazarian, grandson of owner Ralph Kazarian Sr., was bidding for the family.

After the auction, held in front of Mearle's, Michael Kazarian said his family doesn't have definite plans for the restaurant. However, he did say placing a hamburger stand at the Mooney Boulevard location would be an option.

"We want to do what we can to keep it as much as it was before, when it was in its heyday," he said. "We want to work with the [city of Visalia] obviously, and have something good come out of it for everybody."

Rick Mangini, who was dressed in a Mearle's T-shirt, said his group was disappointed it was unable to fulfill its dream of reviving the building, which was the epitome of 1940s and '50s American pop culture. The group had been working for a year and a half, rallying support to restore the iconic building to its previous luster.

"I told Ralph [Kazarian] that we support him and the City Council members," he said.

Bob Cary, who operates A&W restaurants in Tulare and Kern counties and who had expressed interest in buying and restoring the historic eatery, was among the crowd. However, Cary was not one of the bidders.

The historic monument, known for its art deco flair, was placed on the list of local historic structures by the Historic Preservation Committee and Visalia Planning Commission. The move was approved by the Visalia City Council in November 2006.

As they awaited the ribbon-cutting ceremony that would officially mark the reopening of O'Rourke's Diner on Friday morning, local officials and members of the popular eatery's rebuilding committee jostled for space among hungry customers, who filled booths and counter seats and lined the sidewalk waiting to get in.

"I've been coming here since I was 5 years old. I love the steamed cheeseburgers. I love everything Brian [O'Rourke] makes," said Larry Marino, co-chairman of fundraising for the committee. "Last night, I came for dinner, and I had Chilean sea bass, not your standard diner fare, but you're not working with a standard chef."

In his puffy white chef's hat, O'Rourke continually bustled from behind the grill into the dining area, pausing to pat old friends on the shoulder or pass out samples of his signature home-baked bread. Above his head, the diner's new aluminum light fixtures cast a mellow glow over the room, which has been painted a bold yellow and decorated with funky artwork, photos and newspaper clippings.

The fiberglass fowl had been in the news recently after the city ordered it taken down.

Lake Stevens, WA
The chicken soup -- or plot, rather -- has thickened.

The city's deadline for Chicken Drive-In owner Trisha Akerlund to remove the 7-foot fiberglass rooster from in front of her business -- or accept a possible compromise -- was Friday. The business's three signs together, counting the chicken, violate the city's sign code.

Akerlund, however, didn't have to move the landmark bird. Someone else already did it.

Last Saturday night, it was stolen from in front of her business in downtown Lake Stevens, and not by a merry high school prankster, Akerlund believes.

"It's really depressing," said Akerlund, 23, a 2002 Lake Stevens High School grad. "It's a huge deal to me that it comes back."

Should the chicken return, the city has offered Akerlund some options for saving its neck. She would keep it at home until the situation is resolved, she said.

Akerlund bought the business last summer partly to keep alive the tradition of Lake Stevens High School students stealing the chicken. The prank became a regular practice at the drive-in's original location near Frontier Village. This rooster is a replica of the original, which is safe with a previous owner.

Akerlund believes the bird was taken between 10:10 and 10:40 p.m. last Saturday. So far, no one has come forward with any information.

Akerlund said she would wait another month or so to ask police to pursue the matter, in case the theft was a prank.

"They have better things to work on," she said.

The only clue so far is a cryptic anonymous post on the Web site www.savethechicken.org. The site was begun recently by Rachel Barner, a 1989 Lake Stevens High alumna.

The post reads, simply, "The Chicken is in a better place now."

"It's a bit suspicious to me," Barner said.

For more than 60 years, Asheville’s famed Ritz Restaurant has dished out the fried chicken, fish, beef stew and veggies. But that soulful chapter is ending tonight when the eatery at 42 Market St. closes at 9 p.m.

A new Jamaican restaurant, One Love Two, will soon open in that space on The Block, the city’s historic African-American business district.

“It’s the end of one era and the beginning of another,’’ said Barbara Johnson, who has managed The Ritz Restaurant in recent months and will continue with the upstairs private Ritz Club, which will remain open. She remembers dining there as a high school student in the 1950s.

The Ritz was founded in 1946 by the late Erline McQueen, who operated it for decades. The structure is much older, and was once a Black Masonic Temple and later a boardinghouse where baseball great Willie Stargell lived during his days with the Asheville Tourists minor league ballclub.

In 2001, the faded building was bought and restored by Asheville lawyers Eugene Ellison and Howard McGlohon, who continue to own it. McQueen, who died in November at age 95, “just loved having that Southern food on The Block,” Ellison said. “She would always test it and tell you if it was OK.”

Farmington, ME
A Wilton woman who wants to open a restaurant is the new owner of the Farmington Diner.

The only hitch is that the new owner, Rachel Jackson-Hodgdon, will need to move it from the construction site of the new Rite Aid by next week, the giant pharmacy's developer, Bruce Carrier, said Tuesday.

Hodgdon, in an interview earlier this winter, said her dream was to open a place in which the menu would focus on locally grown food.

"I feel there is a need for a restaurant like that, and I would like to see it in Wilton," she said at the time.

Hodgdon could not be reached for comment Tuesday. However, Wilton's code enforcement officer said Hodgdon wants to put it on property she owns on the southeast corner of U.S. Route 2 and Cemetery Road.

Carrier said Hodgdon has agreed to move the diner by the end of next week. She is getting it "as is," for free.

"I'm glad it is going to someone local," he said.

The diner was moved to Farmington from Lewiston in the 1960s and became a local landmark, known for serving generous helpings at affordable prices, until it closed in December.

Charlie Webster, a former regular patron who owns a Farmington heating business, said he was glad the diner was being saved but said that moving it to Wilton will be a problem for the majority of customers. People ate there not only because of the ambiance, price, and camaraderie but also because it was conveniently located to downtown, he said.

By Brian McCarthy | Special to The Daily Local News | Feb. 12, 2008

LANDMARK’S CLOSING, TO BUILD A STARBUCKS AND WALGREENS, LEAVES A HOLE

Phoenixville, PA
Vale-Rio Diner employees gathered Sunday, not only to commiserate the diner’s closing, but to celebrate memories of what for many is a second home.

About 10 diner employees congregated perhaps for the last time Sunday afternoon and shared their tears and laughter. The gathering allowed them share each other’s company before the Vale-Rio’s closing on Feb. 24.

The diner’s closing, together with the Fountain Inn’s on March 2, to make way for a Starbucks and Walgreens, will place about 43 people on the unemployment line. Danielle Charry is affected by both closings because she works as an assistant manager at the Vale-Rio and as a bar manager at the Fountain Inn.

“It’s very upsetting,” she said.

Charry’s favorite memory from her time at the diner is a Christmas party from two years ago when the staff gathered to celebrate the holidays and play games, such as pin the tail on the reindeer.

Eric Charry, who has worked as a cashier and server for more than two years, brought his video camera to film the event. “I feel torn,” Eric Charry said. “It’s a great place that’s really hectic at times. Overall, it’s definitely a great place to work.”

The staff agreed on what part of working at the Vale-Rio they will miss the most.

“The people, the people,” server Pam Vanderslice said. “It’s the people you get to know.”

“I’m close with the owners, the customers, the employees,” said Pam’s daughter, Barbara Vanderslice, who also works as a server.

Barbara Vanderslice is the third generation of the Vanderslice family to work at the diner, following her mother and grandmother. “I’ve been working here since I was 14,” she said.

Mother and daughter then embraced each other, and fellow waitress Helen Jackson, who has worked at the diner for more than 15 years, joined in.

By Alaine Griffin | Hartford Courant | Feb. 11, 2008

Biting wind gusts and single-digit temperatures didn't stop customers from lining up outside for the re-opening early Monday morning of O'Rourke's Diner, the Middletown icon destroyed in a fire nearly 18 months ago.

"It's been a year and a half since I've had his corned beef hash. That's way too long," Ethan Platt of Portland said as he waited first in line next to his buddy Matt Schickling, of Sturbridge, Mass.

"Setting my alarm at 3 a.m. was a little crazy but I knew it would be worth it," Schickling said minutes before the door opened to the Main Street diner that's been a popular restaurant and gathering place in Middletown since 1941.

Inside before opening, the mood was much different than the morning of Aug. 31, 2006, when startled waitresses and cooks ready to work arrived at the gutted and smoldering diner. Investigators determined a hamburger steamer that was left on overnight when the diner was closed triggered the fire.

On Monday, longtime waitresses Janine Janaki and Barbara Feegel hugged in between prepping the counter and tables and memorizing the diner's daily specials.

"I'm shaking I'm so nervous," Janaki said to Feegel, who has worked at O'Rourke's for 18 years.

Feegel, who admitted having a sleepless night, calmed Janaki's nerves.

"It's like riding a bike," Feegel said. "You'll be OK. But just yell to me and I'll be right there with you."

Feegel's supportive words were reminiscent of the words owner Brian O'Rourke and his colleagues have heard since the fire that threatened to put an end to an important part of Middletown's history.

O'Rourke, who grilled his first order at the family diner in 1962 and along with his cousin, purchased it from his Uncle John in 1977, did not have fire insurance. When loyal customers and O'Rourke's friends heard this, they quickly formed a rebuilding committee that conducted numerous fundraisers and sought donations of building materials and contracting work.

New Haven, CT
The landlord for the now-closed Yankee Doodle Coffee Shop is offering to keep the space vacant for two months to give supporters of “The Doodle” a chance to create a sustainable business plan.

But the offer from Tyco owner Michael Iannuzzi Sr. drew an accusation from Yankee Doodle operator Rick Beckwith that Iannuzzi “still refuses to change the unreasonable lease terms that initiated the (restaurant’s) financial problems.”

When Beckwith abruptly shut down Jan. 29 after 58 years of his family’s doing business on Elm Street, charges and denials erupted as to whether he had been victimized by high rent and added charges.

Beckwith and his many supporters, including Yale alumni from around the country, alleged Iannuzzi and his former Tyco partner, John Parker, charged an unreasonable rent as well as requiring him to pay property taxes and utility costs. Advertisement

But Iannuzzi, who continues to call himself “a friend and neighbor of the Beckwith famly,” has issued a three-page statement denying he contributed to the Yankee Doodle’s demise.

Yale University officials also have told Beckwith they are willing to discuss offering him a rental deal. But in brief conversations with the New Haven Register, Beckwith has seemed more interested in trying to return to the site where his grandfather, Lewis Beckwith Sr., began in 1950.

By Jesse Overall | The Wesleyan Argosy | Feb. 8, 2008

Power tools buzzed and hammers thwacked on a recent morning at O’Rourke’s Diner as workers busily prepared for the diner’s official opening next Monday, Feb. 11th.

The story of the beloved diner’s rise from the ashes of a midnight fire touched the entire Middletown community, spurring the creation of a diverse coalition that came together to help out in their hour of need.

“You talk about a melting pot, this diner was a melting pot,” said Lance, a manager at O’Rourke’s. “You’d have the mayor of Middletown sitting down eating breakfast and next to him you have a homeless person.”

The appreciation for the diner was apparent in the community’s reaction to the rebuilding effort.

“It’s been a monumental community effort,” said Jane McMillan, partner in the law firm Howard & McMillan, which helped coordinate the reconstruction process. “We’ve had hundreds of volunteers. Many contractors donated their time. Over 2,000 people have given money [to help cover the diner’s approximately $350,000 bill].”