By Max. R. Mitchell | Watertown Daily Times | Sept. 2, 2008

Ogdensburg, NY
Inside the small red-and-white Phillips Diner, the crowd was large. There were just enough dark leather booths to seat everyone. Owner Judi A. Ashley barely had time to talk.

"You're going to have to cash yourself out today," she joked with one customer.

This summer the diner is celebrating its 60th year under Phillips family ownership, and it is as busy as it has always been.

"They live here," said Mrs. Ashley of the customers and suggested that she should put in beds.

The diner is an institution in Ogdensburg, popular with customers carrying canes to coloring books. The majority of the customers are regulars, with some eating three meals a day there.

Pamela J. and William D. Mitchell said they have been coming to the diner "forever," attracted by the food and the prices.

"We like to come to family-owned places, too," Mrs. Mitchell said.

Mrs. Ashley, who owns the diner with her husband, Don P. Ashley, has been in charge since her father, Joseph H. Rish, died in 2004.

Mr. Rish began working at the diner in 1950, shortly after he married Carol M. Schofell, daughter of original owners Russell and Olive (Ollie) Phillips. Russell, Ollie and son George (Bud) bought the diner in the early summer of 1948, calling it Phillips Diner.

The diner was established in 1930 as a dining car restaurant called M&F Diner. The north side of the Phillips Diner, including the long counter, remains from the original rail car and there are still luggage compartments behind the fluorescent lighting.

Over the years, the dining room was expanded twice, and the kitchen was extended to include a grill and a freezer. Originally, all cooking was done behind the counter.

There are about 20 employees. A few have worked there for more than 20 years, but Greg VanHyning, who has worked there the longest, has been cooking at Phillips for more than 30.

Mr. and Mrs. Ashley have had no formal training in owning and operating a restaurant, but business is happily booming.

"My father taught me everything I needed to know," said Mrs. Ashley, who worked on and off at the restaurant as a teenager, along with her three sisters and brother. "I'm always surprised that I'm back here doing this. I guess I've come full circle."

Before she owned the diner, Mrs. Ashley was a physical therapy aide at St. Regis Nursing Home in Massena and Mr. Ashley was an electrician at General Motors.

The Ashleys have three children, Kristen, Alyssa and Eric, and one granddaughter, Madison. Although the children have not been very involved in the diner so far, Mrs. Ashley plans to pass the business down through the family.

"I have no plans to sell it, ever," Mrs. Ashley said.

There were no birthday parties or specials on the menu, but commemorative T-shirts are being sold and there was a Phillips family reunion in July.

The Phillips family is almost as much of an institution in Ogdensburg as the diner.

Most of the family still lives in Northern New York and original owner Russell first proposed creating a Boys and Girls Club in Ogdensburg in 1961. Both Russell and George were instrumental in the formation of the club.

Mrs. Ashley said the secret for success is that so little at Phillips Diner has changed since 1948.

"You know that the food will taste the same today as it did 20 years ago," she said.

Originally published online here: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20080902/NEWS05/309029939/0/FRONTPAGE/Ogdensburg+diner+marks+60+years+of+ownership