Moondance Moves to Wyoming

The Moondance Diner shut its doors at the end of June at which time it was rumored that it would live out its years at a museum in Pennsylvania. The free-standing diner has changed its path, however, and now it's headed to the small town of La Barge, Wyoming.

The NY Sun (and the Jackson Hole Star Tribune) reports that Vincent and Cheryl Pierce purchased the diner from the Rhode Island-based nonprofit American Diner Museum (where it was donated by Extell Development, who are developing the diner's former site into luxury residences). The couple is currently getting permits to close off Sixth Avenue and Grand Street so they can move their new purchase. At that point "Ms. Pierce's husband and father plan to drive a semi-tractor-trailer to New York City in order to relocate the Moondance to a rural town surrounded by oil and gas fields about five miles north of the Oregon Trail." The town, with a population of about 600, will soon be enjoying traditional diner fare - as the Pierce's plan to have it back to their hometown by August 10th.

This isn't the first time a mainstay diner has left New York. The Munson Diner which used to be on 49th Street is now in Liberty, NY. The executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation told the Sun that the Moondance's fate is part of a "disconcerting trend...an indication that the real estate market in New York, and particularly in Manhattan, is so superheated that anything that doesn't dedicate itself to the super luxury market does not seem to be able to survive." How much did Moondance sell for? $7,500.

Photo courtesy of Cheryl Pierce.

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By Jen Carlson in Food, News on August 1, 2007 4:58 PM

Comments [rss]

Tim N.

Sad.

But we need more condos.

Sinchy

Moondance when I used to go there in the early 90's had great coffee and banana caramel pancakes. It was always a great spot for breakfast and latenight post boozing recovery. Then it all went down hill and I haven't been there since like 98'.

It was a lousy diner. Too bad no one was able to take it over and make it worthwhile.

These luxury buildings going up are really freaking out the old timers in the neigborhood. They don't like the scale and the transitory nature of the people who live in them.

jeremoss

"Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves.... And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."

- from "Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times editorial, October 30, 1963

It's heartening to see there's a town somewhere that admires and pays for structures that still carry emotional weight. La Barge deserves the Moondance.

The diner may not have been on the same level as Penn Station, but it is another casualty in NYC's ongoing onslaught against the authentic and accessible.

guest

#4 and #6, I agree completely about the food.

I lived nearby and rue the day I ever tried a burger there. Shouldn't be so hard to get right, right? Not so. It tasted like it had been sitting rotting for a few days before they decided to cook it.

Now Socrates, which was in tribeca for 25 years but closed this May, was a real diner. Good cheap food and the friendliest staff. We made a lot of good friends there, both patrons and staff. It is sad to see that place go.

Doctor Memory

As a crumbling, dirty reminder of a by-gone time in Manhattan, the Moondance was a landmark.

...as a place to eat food, it was very, very, very bad. Overpriced, bad service, lousy food. It's sad that it'll be replaced by yet another anonymous condo development, but perhaps if the old owners had put any effort at all into making it somewhere worth eating it wouldn't have happened.

slappy

@4

Its not about the food, dummy.

...also:

There are 4 luxury condos going up in a 2 block square radius around Moondance, not including that lot. (Pretty soon all of us might as well be in Wyoming. And leave the city to the bored and boring rich)

The real estate/construction frenzy is just not good for the city in the long run. You may think its a simple issue between whiners and progrssives, but its not. Its bad economics, bad city planning, and is hurting the city and all of us in a lot of ways.

guest

it was one of the worst diner's in NYC anyway. also overpriced. glad to see it go.

Toby von Meistersinger

The luxury condos will no doubt contribute much to the quality of life in the city.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge that goes to Brooklyn to sell you.

Gregoire

How the hell is that building going to survive the move? Its barely standing as it is. Isnt it easier just to build or take over another space and just refit it with the fancy sign and counter?