And so another quirky and cherished piece of city history is crushed by new development. Market Diner, the 1960s-era diner on 11th Avenue at 43rd Street, will flip its last flapjack on Sunday, November 1st before being demolished and replaced by a 13-story mixed-use building.
A tipster alerted Jeremiah Moss, who confirmed that this is the diner's final week of service. Back in July, Market Diner owner Niko Tsinias told us he wasn't sure when the restaurant would close but said they'd have a month to make their final preparations. "Sad but, what can you do!" he said.
Moss, who's been chronicling New York City's loss of character on a grassroots level, has had enough:
Yet again, it's not biting the dust because business is bad, or because it's not a viable business, as the folks in City Hall might want us to believe. Anytime I've gone by the Market Diner, the place was packed. People love it. It's dying because of development. It's dying because of the Hudson Yards Effect.
It's dying because Joseph Moinian’s Moinian Group bought the property and evicted the diner so they can put up a luxury tower. It's dying because small businesses in this city are completely unprotected and utterly vulnerable to the whims of landlords.
Check out his #SaveNYC campaign if you've had enough, too.
This announcement is sadly timed with a long feature on Crains about the dying diner industry in NYC. To wit, three of the diners celebrated in our best diners piece—including Market Diner—have closed since the article ran in 2013 and a fourth has been rumored to be closing soon.
"We are not planning at this time to relocate anywhere," Tsinias tells us. "As far as the building is concerned the landlord might move it, but we don't no any details on it as of now." There's a precedent for that!
