Wish Your Neighborhood Had a Diner? Buy This One on eBay

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Additional coverage here.

Two and a half years ago, Matt Ashburn and Patrick Carl looked around their then-restaurant starved neighborhood, Washington, D.C.'s Trinidad, and decided to open a classic diner. But instead of building a new one, they imported one from upstate New York. Here's a quote from an email that Ashburn sent me about it back in May of 2009:

We bought a Silk City Diner, manufactured by Paterson Vehicle Company in 1947, that has been in upstate New York ever since it was put into service.

The nation's capital currently has no true diners that I'm aware of; that is, historic modular diner buildings manufactured during 1930-60. So, we're bringing one to DC by moving it from New York.

It seemed like a great idea at the time, and for a while, Capital City Diner was a pretty hoppin' place. Its location on Bladensburg Road, a commercial strip better known for its auto repair shops that happens to transect two otherwise residential neighborhoods, made it a popular destination for locals.

The restaurant industry is a notoriously tough one, though, and Ashburn ended up closing Capital City at the end of January. (A goodbye message to regulars placed at least some of the blame on a Denny's that opened down the street last year). So now Ashburn has to unload the diner itself, which he's attempting to do on eBay:

While we've tried to find a local buyer to take it over, it's been a challenge, so we're putting this up on eBay.

We'd like to sell this to someone interested in preserving the diner, and it can be moved to anywhere you desire (we have the contact information for a reputable diner mover). It's in great shape, and we ran all new electric and plumbing before we opened 2 years ago.  We just closed in January, so we're also including all of our fixtures, equipment, etc.

The diner measures approximately 14' x 40', and we added a small 8x16 addition on the back for two restrooms and storage. The diner seats 36- 5 booths (4 each) and 16 stools.  More seating may be available with a different configuration (tables/chairs instead of booths), and we added an outdoor patio at this location to increase capacity.

UPDATE: Ashburn says he's honestly not sure exactly how much he's looking to get for the diner, but pins his break-even number at $80,000. The ad does mention that it cost him approximately $12,000 to move the diner from Avoca, New York, to D.C., "but moving the diner to your location may be more or less depending on your distance and other factors."

Capital City Diner devotees in D.C. may be heartbroken, but perhaps the diner would have better luck in your city?

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/03/wish-your-neighborhood-had-diner-buy-one-ebay/1417/

The Final End of The Line For Kullman

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Note:  One of the classic diner manufacturers ends its long run in a rather sad fashion.  Kullman's attempt to reinvent itself as a pre-fab modular building company never panned out...  They will be missed... RJD

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An auction of the assets of pre-manufactured and modular building company Kullman Building Corp. is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, December 13 under the direction of Alco Capital Group, Inc., Assignee for the Benefit of Creditors. The sale will be conducted at the company's site at 1 Kullman Corporate Campus Drive in Lebanon and online by auctioneer Tiger/Daley-Hodkin, which was retained by Alco Capital and confirmed by the Court.

The auction will include metalworking and fabrication, welding, woodworking, painting and spray booth equipment, as well as rolling stock, modular buildings, building materials, fixtures, and other assets. On-site previews will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on Saturday, December 10; Monday, December 12, and on the day of sale. The auction will get under way at 10:00 a.m., next Tuesday.

Elaborating on the assets being auctioned, Jeff Tanenbaum, president of Tiger's Remarketing Services Division, said: "The sale offers a diverse mix of items catering to all types of buyers. Other modular building manufacturers may appreciate the Peddinghaus state-of-the-art thermal steel fabricator or Lincoln robotic welding system, while small businesses and the general public will have an opportunity to bid on hundreds of power tools, trucks, smaller machinery and Kullman's inventory of bathroom fixtures and building supplies. Throw in the company's selection of office furniture and computers, and this is definitely a 'something for everyone' type of auction."

More here.

The Sign Painter: Among the region's many 'ghost signs' is the fading legacy of 'Red' O'Donnell

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By Marylynne Pitz | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

At Maurice "Red" O'Donnell's three-story house in Homewood, the phone rang constantly with calls from customers.

That trilling telephone meant income for the blue-eyed, red-haired father of eight whose third-grade education, confidence and ability to paint outdoor signs on the sides of large buildings kept him in business for more than 25 years.

Between the 1930s and 1950s, he painted signs for such clients as Dad's Root Beer, Meadow Gold Ice Cream and Borden's Milk all over Western Pennsylvania.

"He was self-employed. He worked morning, noon and night," says his daughter Marge McMackin, a retired high school English and journalism teacher who lives in Garfield.

The son of Irish immigrants, the late sign painter belonged to a fraternity of brush-wielding, overalls-wearing men called "wall dogs" who created an idiosyncratic form of commercial art that promoted beer, bread, cigars, flour, well-tailored clothes, soda pop and any other product or service someone wanted to sell.

Many of these large signs are still visible in Pittsburgh and other Midwestern and mid-Atlantic cities partly because they were often applied to brick walls with lead-based paint. Some are revealed in vivid color when old buildings are torn down, which is how Polish Hill got its Mother's Bread sign back in 2008. Several years ago, a Star Soap ad on Penn Avenue in Garfield was restored by artist Jocelyn Jacobs through a seed grant from the Sprout Fund.

Often called ghost signs because they are fading and have been painted over older ads, this slice of roadside culture is the subject of several books, websites, at least two documentaries and innumerable postings on flicker.com.

Earlier this year, William Stage, a Missouri journalist in St. Louis, launched a website, www.paintedad.com, to archive and showcase images of these signs he began photographing 35 years ago. He's turned his favorites into a book of color postcards called The Painted Ad that can be torn out and sent or kept as mementos. His first book on the subject, "Ghost Signs: Brick Wall Signs in America," appeared in 1989.

Some of the ad copy from these old signs, Mr. Stage says, is so naive that it's endearing. Examples he has captured in St. Louis include, "Waverly Bicycles will drive your cares away" and "Every puff a pleasure."

The Glorious Return of the Quarrier Diner

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First, let's be clear.  To diner aficionados, the Quarrier Diner is not a "true" diner.  It wasn't built elsewhere and shipped to its current location. It doesn't have a "builders tag" emblazoned above the door which notes its provenance.   Nor does it share the classic "railroad car" shape of the classic diner.  But on so many other levels, it fills the bill perfectly.

We have watched and commented on the Quarrier for years, and, most recently, worried quite a bit about its imminent demise and possible replacement by some clunky FBI building.

So, it is with with great joy that we post this article -- and we give the Pollitt's total credit for this transformation.  Here's hoping that the residents of Charleston will come out in droves to support this remarkable transformation...

By Julie Robinson CHARLESTON, W.Va.

A neon "Open" sign glowing on the newly renovated historic Quarrier Diner excites both local residents who remember the restaurant's heyday and passers-by who look forward to a new downtown

dining option. The restaurant's opening last week was bittersweet for Anna Pollitt, who owns the restaurant with her husband, David. The Pollitts purchased the dilapidated restaurant in September

2010 at the urging of their son Tim, who worked at Murad's in Kanawha City. "He told us that if we would purchase a restaurant, he would make it work," she said. When Quarrier Diner went on the

market after being closed for 10 years, it seemed a natural purchase to David, a C.P.A. He dined there daily when he was a student at nearby Charleston Catholic High School and later when he

worked for 17 years at a building across the street. They began extensive renovations in January to restore the Art Nouveau building to its original splendor when Tim died at on Easter day from a

head injury sustained after falling down the stairs at home. "We had to go forward, partly because we had every penny invested," said an emotional Anna. "The renovations were already so far along."

Read the entire story here.