Road Island Diner - Oakley, UT

Tommy's Deluxe Diner
photo courtesy of
photosonflickr

Today is the grand opening of the Road Island Diner. When Tommy's Deluxe Diner left Middletown, Rhode Island in July 2007, we followed Keith Walker's restoration of the 1939 O'Mahony diner into the Road Island Diner through its website gallery. It was an ambitious project and there's nothing finer than a restored diner. We're anxious to visit. Read the entire news article here.

At left is Tommy's after it had closed. External and internal pictures of the restored Road Island diner are in firstyearta's flickr photostream here.

For more pictures of diners, we invite you to visit our flickr photostream here.


Road Island Diner
981 Weber Canyon Road
Oakley, UT
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Edgemere Diner - Shrewsbury, MA

Edgemere Diner exterior,
© 2006 DinerHistory.com file photo

A reader alerted us to this recent article about the former Edgemere Diner. Just a couple weeks prior, this article was published. Both repeat parts of other articles we've seen in the past, detailing the background of the owner.

As the result of a tax issue, the town acquired the 1948 Fodero Dining Car Company diner in October 1995. Ever since its been a revolving door of two year leases.It wasn't until March 2005 when that process ended. Restrictions were changed yet it failed to attract serious offers. A few more changes and late last year the town found an acceptable buyer.

Edgemere Diner interior,
© 2006 DinerHistory.com file photo

The former diner reopened this past March as the Edge. Though in a diner, yet casting off traditional diner food, the Edge limits its menu to sausage and hot dog products. A video about the Edge is available here.

While a diner that only serves hot dogs isn't a new idea, we wonder just how viable it will be for the Edge. Tex Barry's Coney Island Hot Dogs on the other hand, has been around for generations doing just this. Recently Tex Barry's appeared in a segment for the Chronicle, Boston's ABC affiliate, WCVB TV Channel 5 nightly news program. Click to watch the video. Richard J. S. Gutman, diner expert and curator of the only known exhibition of collected diner history and a real Worcester Lunch Car Company diner, provides insightful commentary. More information on the diner exhibit is found here. Be sure to watch the entire video as the Lanna Thai and the Liberty Elm diners also make an appearance. A correction to the video is the Liberty Elm has switched to their expanded summer hours.

We made a visit to the diner this past January and was disappointed they had painted over the Art Deco lettering on the diner's exterior. The Edge is on our list to visit next time we are in the area.


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The Edge
51 Hartford Ave.
Shrewsbury, MA
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Lanna Thai Diner
901 Main St.
Woburn, MA
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Liberty Elm Diner
777 Elmwood Ave.
Providence, RI
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Tex Barry's Coney Island Hot Dogs
31 County St.
Attleboro, MA
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We invite you to visit our flickr diner photostream.

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Starlite Diner - North Little Rock, AR

IMG_0714
Originally uploaded by Dale Miller
and appears here under Creative
Commons license here.

A reader sent us a link to an article about the Starlite Diner. This was news to us and admittedly, we would have rather read that the diner is in new hands. Instead it seems the diner is the subject of a "suspicious" fire that broke out at 2AM Monday morning. Read the entire article here.

It was known that the diner has been for sale for a while. It was posted multiple times on a well known Internet auction website, as far back as the end of last year. Each time the auction ended unsuccessfully. We don't know if the diner was open or closed at the time of the fire. Back in April this article was written describing business was down.
Given the construction method of the Starlite, restoration shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps this would be an opportune time to bring the interior back to the days of terrazzo, Formica and tile?

flickr photo of diner exterior here.

For more pictures of diners, we invite you to visit our flickr photostream here.


Starlite Diner
250 E Military Dr.
North Little Rock, AR
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