Empire Diner

Last updated

Empire Diner
Empire-Diner 01.jpg
The Empire Diner in 2010
Empire Diner
Restaurant information
Street address210 Tenth Avenue
CityNew York
StateNew York
Postal/ZIP Code10011
Coordinates 40°44′50″N74°00′16″W / 40.747113°N 74.00436°W / 40.747113; -74.00436
Website empire-diner.com

The Empire Diner is a restaurant in New York City that launched a vogue for upscale retro diners, and whose art deco exterior became an iconic image in numerous films and television programs. It is located at the corner of Tenth Avenue and 22nd Street in the neighborhood of Chelsea.

Contents

Importance

Constructed by the Fodero Dining Car Company in 1946 and operating as a Manhattan diner until being abandoned years later, the diner was refurbished in 1976. Additions included a stylized Empire State Building outline on its roof. It became a city fixture and an artists' nexus from then on. The Empire opened on February 29, 1976 (Leap Day). The restaurant closed on May 15, 2010, and The Highliner opened briefly in its space that same year. The restaurant reopened under the name Empire Diner, under executive chef Amanda Freitag, in January 2014, and closed after less than a year of service in December 2015. Empire Diner reopened under executive chef Jestin Feggan of Cafeteria, a Chelsea favorite for over two decades, and its managing partner Stacy Pisone in April 2017.

Creation

The Art Deco style dining car that served as the physical structure of the Empire Diner was constructed by the Fodero Dining Car Company in 1946. [1] Situated at 210 Tenth Avenue, on the corner of West 22nd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan, it was closed and nearly abandoned in 1976 when new owners Jack Doenias, Carl Laanes, and Richard Ruskay renovated "the former greasy spoon on then-grungy 10th Ave. and turned it into the landmark restaurant [that] [...] became a major force in the Chelsea Renaissance that allowed art galleries, hotels, and other restaurants to replace the machine shops, gas stations and auto parts stores that then dominated the landscape." [2]

The diner had previously had its original windows changed and its monitor roof hidden from the outside. [3] The three partners painted "EAT" in large letters on a wall behind the diner, put in a miniature, stainless steel, a stylized outline of the Empire State Building on a corner of the roof, and replaced the Formica tabletops and counters with black glass. [3] The partners also opened Ruskay's, another restaurant, on Columbus Avenue, that same year, and would open Rick's Lounge, in downtown Manhattan on Eighth Avenue, in 1981. [4]

The Empire Diner became a popular success, appearing as a New York magazine cover story, "The New Great-Looking Dining Places: Is the Food as Good as the Design?', the year that it opened. [3] Diner historians credit it with sparking a movement toward similar upscale retro diners. Wrote author Richard J. S. Gutman, "The Empire pioneered the concept of the diner being something other than just a diner. With candlelight, live piano music, and an untraditional menu somewhat on the pricey side, this was a new tangent for diners." [3] Author Randy Garbin, founder of Roadside Magazine, wrote that the new owners had taken "a run-down [...] diner in a depressed neighborhood and introduced haute cuisine. The irony struck chords in both the New York art and restaurant scenes, with repercussions throughout the country." [5] Its menu included traditional American fare, but also such signature dishes as "Jack's chili sundae" and pigs in a blanket made with Vienna sausages and biscuit dough. [6] The 24-hour diner's "highbrow-lowbrow fusion ... built a steady clientele among the neighborhood’s culture vultures and its club-going nighthawks alike." [6]

Owners after Ruskay

The diner as seen from across 10th Avenue in 2009. Empire Diner Chelsea jeh.jpg
The diner as seen from across 10th Avenue in 2009.

Following the deaths of Ruskay (d. March 16, 1992) [4] and Doenias, Laanes sold the operation to executive chef Mitchell Woo, who had been with the diner since 1980, and general manager Renate Gonzalez, who had joined in 1986. [2]

Between 2005 and 2010, Thomas Feucht, founder & CEO of The Kullmans Diner Group joined the executive team of Nothing Heavy inc. The Feucht family held the Empire Diner trademark rights in the USA until 2014. Upon returning the trademark rights to NHI inc., the path was clear for Amanda Freitag to reopen the diner under the Empire Diner name. The last years of the old Empire Diner were heavily influenced by the Feucht family, i.e. the iconic outdoor cafe with its black furniture and partitions.

In late 2009, lease negotiations between the Empire Diner owners and Chuck Levinson, whose family had owned the property since the early 1930s, ended without a lease renewal. The physical structure was scheduled to be taken over under a new name by restaurateurs Carolyn Benitez, Charles Milite, and Eric Petterson of the Gotham City Restaurant Group, under a 15-year lease. [7] The last day of business for the Empire Diner at this location was May 15, 2010. [8] [9] [10] Woo and Gonzalez filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, in late April 2010, alleging the landlord wanted to claim the name "Empire Diner" to pass along to the next proprietors. [11] The judge in this trademark lawsuit ruled on December 3, 2010, that the case could go to trial. By this time, the rooftop Empire State Building replica had gone missing. [12]

By late July, Gotham City Restaurant Group, "without substantial renovation", had opened a new restaurant at the site, the Highliner. [13] The New Yorker opined, "The body remains, but the soul has vanished. The Highliner is representative, though, of the new Chelsea that is emerging on weekends, as visitors flood the elevated park the restaurant is named after: touristy, overpriced, and shiny. It is not uncommon to see guidebooks and maps spread out on the nascent eatery’s outdoor tables. Of course, tourists need to eat, too, but at the Highliner they do not get to eat particularly well." [13]

The restaurant reopened under the name Empire Diner, under executive chef Amanda Freitag, in January 2014, [14] at first serving only dinner, then expanding to lunch. Freitag left in July 2015. [15]

Significance

The Empire Diner was frequented by celebrities including Meryl Streep and her then partner, John Cazale, Josh Brolin, [16] Minnie Driver, [16] Ethan Hawke, [16] Madonna, [10] Julia Roberts with then-boyfriend Benjamin Bratt, [16] Steven Spielberg, [10] Barbra Streisand, [10] and Kate Winslet. [16] It was not universally loved, however: A Village Voice critic wrote near the end of the diner's run that, "The building itself is deservedly beloved, but the restaurant's surly service and way overpriced, completely unremarkable grub mean that the only thing we'll miss is the upright piano." [17] Regardless, wrote The New Yorker in 1998, "Every art scene gets the hangout it deserves. In the '50s, there was the Cedar Tavern ... [then] Max's Kansas City, a steakhouse near Union Square, catered to the '60s cool school.... In the '80s, the art world headed down to Tribeca to toast itself at the Odeon. And in the '90s? The new spot is the Empire Diner, a glitz-free, gemutlich place tucked among the warehouses of West Chelsea...." [18] According to HBO's Western Stars (2019) and Springsteen's autobiography Born to Run (2016), Springsteen often met Patti Scialfa on a bench across from the Empire Diner where he eventually proposed to her.

The Empire Diner has appeared in numerous films, television programs, and advertisements.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea, Manhattan</span> Neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City

Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River and West Street to the west, and Sixth Avenue to the east, with its northern boundary variously described as near the upper 20s or 34th Street, the next major crosstown street to the north. To the northwest of Chelsea is the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, as well as Hudson Yards; to the northeast are the Garment District and the remainder of Midtown South; to the east are NoMad and the Flatiron District; to the southwest is the Meatpacking District; and to the south and southeast are the West Village and the remainder of Greenwich Village. Chelsea is named after the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delmonico's</span> American restaurant in New York City

Delmonico's is the name of a series of restaurants that operated in New York City, and Greenwich, Connecticut with the present version located at 56 Beaver Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. The original version was widely recognized as America's first fine dining restaurant. Beginning as a small cafe and pastry shop in 1827 at 23 William Street, Delmonico's eventually grew into a hospitality empire that encompassed several luxury restaurants catering to titans of industry, the political elite and cultural luminaries. In many respects, Delmonico's represented the genesis of American fine dining cuisine, pioneering numerous restaurant innovations, developing iconic American dishes, and setting a standard for dining excellence. Delmonico's shuttered all locations by 1923. In 1926, Delmonico's under new ownership by Italian immigrant Oscar Tucci reopened at 56 Beaver Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fodero Dining Car Company</span>

The Fodero Dining Car Company (1933–1981) was a diner manufacturer located in Newark and later Bloomfield, New Jersey. It was founded by Italian immigrant Joseph Fodero, who formed the company after constructing diners with P. J. Tierney Sons and Kullman Industries.

The Kiev Restaurant was a Ukrainian restaurant located in the East Village section of New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Chang</span> American chef and TV personality

David Chang is an American restaurateur, author, podcaster, and television personality. He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group. In 2009, Momofuku Ko was awarded two Michelin stars, which the restaurant has retained each year since. In 2011, he co-founded the influential food magazine Lucky Peach, which lasted for 25 quarterly volumes into 2017. In 2018, Chang created, produced, and starred in a Netflix original series called Ugly Delicious, and through his Majordomo Media group, he has produced and/or starred in more television and podcasts. On November 29, 2020, he became the first celebrity to win the $1,000,000 top prize for his charity, Southern Smoke Foundation, and the fourteenth overall million dollar winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Wahl's</span> Fast food chain in the Rochester, New York area

Tom Wahl's is a chain of fast-food restaurants based in the Rochester, New York area that currently has several restaurants around the Finger Lakes region. USA Today named it one of "51 great burger joints across the USA" in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veselka</span> Ukrainian restaurant in New York City

Veselka is a Ukrainian restaurant at 144 Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1954 by Wolodymyr Darmochwal and his wife, Olha Darmochwal, post–World War II Ukrainian refugees. Veselka is one of the last of many Slavic restaurants that once proliferated in the neighborhood. A cookbook, published in October 2009 by St. Martin's Press, highlights more than 120 of the restaurant's Eastern European recipes.

Amanda Freitag is an American celebrity chef and cookbook author. She is known for her frequent appearances on Food Network television programs and her work as a judge on television cooking competitions. She is based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Momofuku (restaurants)</span> Culinary brand

Momofuku is a culinary brand established by chef David Chang in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar. It includes restaurants in New York City, Toronto (defunct), Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, a bakery established by pastry chef Christina Tosi, a bar (Nikai), and a quarterly magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleven Madison Park</span> Restaurant in New York City

Eleven Madison Park is a fine dining restaurant located inside the Metropolitan Life North Building at 11 Madison Avenue in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City. Owned by chef Daniel Humm's Make it Nice group, it has held 3 Michelin stars since 2012, and was ranked first among The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pétrus (restaurant)</span> Restaurant in London, England

Pétrus is a restaurant in London, which serves modern French cuisine. It is located in Kinnerton Street, Belgravia and is part of Gordon Ramsay restaurants owned by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's Gordon Ramsay Restaurants Ltd. It has held one Michelin star since 2011, and 3 AA Rosettes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gotham Bar and Grill</span> New American restaurant in New York City

Gotham Bar and Grill is a New American restaurant located at 12 East 12th Street, in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, in New York City. It opened in 1984. It closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and re-opened in November 2021.

Mas (farmhouse) (pronounced as either "mah" or "mahs") was a New American and French restaurant located at 39 Downing Street (between Bedford Street and Varick Street) in the West Village in Manhattan, in New York City. It was established in 2004. Mas closed in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dirt Candy</span> Vegetarian restaurant in New York

Dirt Candy is a vegetarian restaurant in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Chef and owner Amanda Cohen opened the restaurant in a small East Village space in 2008, and moved to its present location in 2015. It has received critical attention for its creative dishes which often focus on a single vegetable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beast (restaurant)</span> Defunct restaurant in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Beast was a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. The business earned chef and owner Naomi Pomeroy a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Northwest in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Trois Chevaux</span> Restaurant in New York City

Les Trois Chevaux is a fine dining restaurant in New York City. Owned and run by Angie Mar, it opened in July 2021 and serves French cuisine.

Atera is a restaurant in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucier (restaurant)</span> Defunct restaurant in Portland, Oregon

Lucier was a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, that specialized in European cuisine. The business, which was described as "the most opulent restaurant space in Portland history", only operated for seven months in 2008. News outlets described the failed venture as "the most colossal faceplant in Portland dining history" and the city's "greatest restaurant boondoggle". Lucier was the only restaurant in Oregon that the American Automobile Association awarded with four diamonds.

Barbuto is an Italian restaurant owned by Jonathan Waxman located in the West Village of Manhattan, New York City, on Washington Street. The original location closed after 15 years when it lost its lease in 2019. They reopened in the autumn of 2021 at 113 Horatio Street. The new location actually opened in February 2020 but three weeks later they were forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

Notes

1. ^ This was after series creator Jay Tarses and star Blair Brown had "conceived the [title] character ... over long discussions at the Empire Diner." [24]

Citations

  1. ↑ "Empire Diner". NYC-Architecture.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011.
  2. 1 2 Marx, Rebecca (April 26, 2010). "The Empire Diner Will Close on May 15". The Village Voice . Archived from the original on June 14, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Gutman, Richard J. S. American Diner Then and Now (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), pp. 210–212. ISBN   978-0-8018-6536-7
  4. 1 2 "Richard A. Ruskay, Restaurateur, 44". 'The New York Times . March 21, 1992. Archived from the original on April 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ Garbin, Randy (2005). Diners of New England . Stackpole Books. p.  236. ISBN   978-0-8117-3141-6. Jack Doenias.
  6. 1 2 Cavouras, Krissa Corbett (n.d.). "Empire Diner". New York . Archived from the original on August 26, 2010.
  7. ↑ Hedlund, Patrick (November 12, 2009). "Fallen Empire: New Tenant Found for 10th Ave. Diner". Chelsea Now. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011.
  8. ↑ Sifton, Sam (April 30, 2010). "Memories of the Empire Diner". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011.
  9. ↑ Trapasso, Clare (April 25, 2010). "Iconic Empire Diner to Close Doors in May". Daily News . New York City. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Vertuccio, Rocco (April 25, 2010). "Iconic Chelsea Diner To Serve Up Final Order". NY1. Archived from the original on September 27, 2012. (requires scrolldown).
  11. ↑ Gendar, Alison. "Diner Owners: Name Is Off Your Menu", New York Daily News, April 27, 2010, p. 2
  12. ↑ Lombardi, Frank (December 5, 2010). "Feud over Empire Diner in Chelsea heats up as both sides lay claim to the iconic name". Daily News . New York City. Archived from the original on September 6, 2012.
  13. 1 2 Levy, Ariel (August 8, 2011). "Tables for Two: The Highliner". The New Yorker . Archived from the original on August 2, 2011.
  14. ↑ Preston, Marguerite (January 7, 2014). "Empire Diner, Amanda Freitag's Revamp of the Retro Icon". Eater.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014.
  15. ↑ Morabito, Greg (July 10, 2015). "TV Fixture Amanda Freitag Leaves the Kitchen at Empire Diner". Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Fagen, Cynthia R. (April 25, 2010). "Empire Diner to Check Out". New York Post . Archived from the original on June 5, 2011.
  17. ↑ Marx, Rebecca (April 16, 2010). "Our 10 Most Overrated Restaurants". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on January 9, 2011.
  18. ↑ Solomon, Deborah (January 12, 1998). "The Creative Life" . The New Yorker . p. 30. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011.
  19. 1 2 3 Mateo, Lisa. "Iconic Empire Diner To Serve Its Last Meal in May", WPIX.com, April 26, 2010. WebCitation archive.
  20. 1 2 3 "Empire Diner, A Chelsea Icon, For Lease". Eater.com. October 23, 2009. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011.
  21. 1 2 "Men In Black II Film Locations". Movie-Locations.com. n.d. Archived from the original on May 28, 2011.
  22. ↑ Mullins, Edmund (April 27, 2010). "NYC's Empire Diner To Sling Last Hash". Black Book Magazine . Archived from the original on September 18, 2010.
  23. ↑ "John Baeder". official site. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  24. ↑ Milward, John (March 28, 1988). "New York Women". New York. p.  30.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.