Results tagged “cheyenne”

     

The Cheyenne Diner, one of New York City's last streamlined railway car-inspired diners, is one step closer to its relocation to Birmingham, Alabama. On Sunday workers removed the Cheyenne's neon signs in preparation for the move, which is to take place within the next few weeks. Last April, owner George Papas (who also owns the nearby Skylight Diner), closed the Cheyenne, which was built in 1940, and prepared to demolish it to make room for a nine story condo.

After a planned relocation to Red Hook fell apart, the beloved old Cheyenne diner will most likely be sold to a buyer in Alabama, after almost 70 years in business near Penn Station. Owner George Papas, who will demolish it if no one buys it so he can build a nine story condo on the property, tells Chelsea Now he's "pretty confident" that an unnamed man will move it to Alabama. Which beats demolition, but you'll recall how the Moondance Diner fared when a Wyoming couple bought it. Of course, there's a certain bitter irony to all this, since newcomers are perpetually drawn to New York in large part due to the distinctive character created by places like these, which are now forced to relocate to the provinces to make way for the same generic eyesores found everywhere. The lesson, perhaps, is that if you live in the Midwest, you may as well just stay down on the farm until a taste of New York comes to you—because there ain't much of it left here, y'all!

Plans to move the old Cheyenne Diner from its current location near Penn Station to a new home in Red Hook have fallen through, as many feared last week. Michael O’Connell, son of Red Hook developer Greg O'Connell, who bought the old prefab gem after it closed last April to make way for a condo, says it's too big to transport over the East River bridges. O'Connell considered moving it by barge, but that "proved 3 times as costly as traditional figures a year ago," according to a press release from Michael Perlman, a New Yorker who's become The Fixer when it comes to relocating doomed diners.

When the vintage factory-built Cheyenne Diner near Penn Station closed last April after 68 years in business, widespread dismay was quickly replaced with hope when a Red Hook man bought it for $5,000 and promised to move the prefab gem across the East River. But it's been almost nine months since the closure, and the diner's gone nowhere because, as it turns out, it's too big to be moved over the Manhattan Bridge, even in two pieces.

New York has lost another vintage factory built diner: The Cheyenne, a popular all night eatery near Penn Station, will close its doors on Sunday after 68 years of operation. And the owner of a rival diner – the bigger Skylight Diner nearby – is to blame. Skylight owner George Papas also owns the narrow 20-by-100 foot site the Cheyenne currently occupies and he plans to build a nine-story apartment building on the property. Forgotten-NY’s Kevin Walsh tells us the days of the one-story, stand-alone diner are almost over:

Unfortunately the reality is that Manhattan’s becoming so pricey that you just can’t sustain these diners no matter how good business is. I was in the Cheyenne a couple weeks ago at lunchtime and it was packed, but the owner of the property feels he can make a lot more money on that spot by building a multi-story building and having a lot of tenants. I’ve been to the Skylight around the corner a couple times and it’s an inferior diner to the Cheyenne; the food is not as good nor is the atmosphere as good as the Cheyenne.