On a recent morning in Tony's Freehold Grill, Mike Burtt sat at the counter, a cup of coffee in front of him.

"I think this is the best place in town — best food, best coffee," said Burtt, a Freehold retiree who has patronized the downtown diner since his school days. "Service is great. Run into a lot of old-timers."

Both Burtt and the diner are 1947 models, each 60 years old this year.

On June 9, 1947, the prefabricated, metal diner manufactured by Jerry O'Mahony Inc. of Elizabeth was put in place, replacing a wood structure. The Iliadis family, now in its second generation of ownership, has modernized it over the years, but there is still plenty of the real deal.

Driving near "The Point," where Main Street and Broadway fork, motorists are welcomed by the vintage neon sign, with Freehold in red and Grill in green. Inside the diner, which seats 55 on 17 stools and in about a half-dozen booths, stainless steel walls and counters stand out, a ceiling mirror runs the length of the counter, and longtime short-order cook Alex Grigorieff, 74, grills eggs and burgers or makes sandwiches.

The grill sits behind the counter, in full view of customers. "That is an absolute novelty," said Tommy Iliadis, 49, who owns the diner his family has been involved with since 1953.

"Very rarely you see that. People love that. "It is nerve-racking people watching you, but it's fun."

Once a 24-hour diner, it has evolved over the years to a breakfast-to-dinner spot to the present opening for breakfast and closing mid-afternoon. Regulars dot the counter on most mornings.

Borough resident John Mecabe, 75, has been a customer for about 20 years. A retired truck driver, he stops by every day, sometimes twice a day.

"It's clean, and the food is good," Mecabe said, sitting at the counter, awaiting breakfast. "The people are nice."

"I sneak away for 10 minutes, run into locals, catch up on what's going on," said Mark Sweeney, 42, a mortician at the nearby Higgins Memorial Home, as he picked up a to-go order of coffee.

Burtt said he stops by every day around mid-morning.

"It's a nice way to start your day," said Burtt, a retired manager with the Jersey Central Power & Light Co.

The Iliadis family became affiliated with the diner when Tommy's father, Tony, began working there. He had arrived in the country from Greece six years earlier, on the exact date his future diner was put in place.

In 1963, Iliadis and two partners bought the diner. Then, in 1970, the Iliadis family became the sole owner and, around this time, the Freehold Grill became Tony's Freehold Grill.

Tony remained an everyday part of the diner until about 2000, Tommy Iliadis said.

Although Tony died in 2005 at 75, he smiles in a photograph on menus and longtime regulars remember him, fondly.

"Old Tony at the grill," Burtt recalled.

In between the grill and counter, Tony Iliadis held court for years — facing a customer and taking his order, turning around to cook it on the grill and, of course, talking about the trotters and pacers running at the nearby Freehold Raceway.

He was known for being crusty on the outside, warm on the inside.

"Hell of a nice guy," Mecabe said.

Borough resident Jack Mulvihill, 61, a customer for about 30 years, said Tony would give away meals to those down and out.

"He was a first-class person," Mulvihill said. "Stuff you don't find much anymore."

Tony would learn a customer's name on the first visit, Mulvihill said.

"By the third time, he knew what you were going to order, and the meal would hit the counter by the time you sat down."

"We've got great customers," Tommy Iliadis said. "We do our best to take care of them."

Of the 2,500 1947 O'Mahony diners made, probably "less than a dozen" are still in use, said Daniel Zilka, acting director of the American Diner Museum in Providence, R.I. Zilka, who visited Tony's Freehold Grill a few years ago, said its original condition was "fairly good."

"It was the quintessential diner — people were friendly, the food was good, which would certainly entice me to come back," Zilka said.

The diner's circa-1960s, table-side jukeboxes no longer work. But the place still rocks — thanks to borough native Bruce Springsteen, according to Iliadis. He said glimpses of the diner can be seen on Springsteen's "Long Walk Home" video, parts of which were filmed in August at the diner.

Iliadis, who still consults in his former full-time field of chemical engineering, basically overseas the diner operation, sometimes hosting.

Iliadis and his two brothers — Pete, 48, a Jackson resident who owns a refrigeration company, and Leo, 43, a cardiologist who lives in Moorestown — have children. But it is unclear if there will be a third generation entering the diner business.

"As long as I can do it, I will," said Iliadis, who lives in the house attached to the diner. And the customers, new faces and many old ones, keep rolling in. "I think the French toast is great," Burtt said. "His rice pudding is out of this world."

Originally published online here: http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071115/NEWS01/711150339/1004/NEWS01