Results tagged “cheyennediner”

Last night the gorgeous old Cheyenne Diner was unceremoniously carted away on flatbed trucks to its new home in Birmingham, Alabama. Did anyone else mistakenly think it was already gone? Actually, only its signs were removed, back in January, after a push to keep it in NYC by moving it to Red Hook failed. Because that's just what Manhattan so desperately needs. Birmingham businessman Joel Owens bought the 1940s-era streamlined diner for several thousand dollars; he tells CNN, "I think it's the most beautiful diner in the world. If you think about what's wrong with today, in order to fix the problems of today, you've got to look back... [to] when it was better. I think [the diner] is symbolic of the glory days. Technology and more money doesn't necessarily mean progress. We long for simpler times. These types of buildings can be an instrument for our youth to learn from the past. Teenagers need a clean environment for entertainment, a 'hang out.'" Here in New York, we obviously need more condos; naturally that's what the owner of the Cheyenne's midtown site plans to build on the site.

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.

Beloved Chelsea standby, the Cheynne Diner, closed two weeks ago so the site's owner could begin work on a 9-story building that will bring in rental income. But now, regulars can look forward to visiting the diner across the East River in Red Hook!

     

The Cheyenne Diner is closing for good today, to make room for another Manhattan residential building. The 68-year-old diner fell victim to the city's own successes and spiraling real estate costs. The owner of the property, George Papas, who owns the nearby Skylight Diner, figures that no matter how successful the Cheyenne is (a hamburger is $4.50, the lumberjack breakfast--two eggs, pancakes or French toast, and ham, sausage or bacon--is $7.95), there's no way it could match the rental income equal to the nine-story building that is planned to replace it.