Empire Diner

Coordinates: 40°44′50″N 74°00′16″W / 40.747113°N 74.00436°W / 40.747113; -74.00436

The Empire Diner is a restaurant in New York City that launched a vogue for upscale retro diners, and whose Art Moderne exterior became an iconic image in numerous films and television programs.

Constructed by the Fodero Dining Car Company in 1946 and operating as a Manhattan diner until being abandoned years later, it was refurbished in 1976, with additions including a stylized Empire State Building outline on its roof. It became a city fixture and an artists' nexus from then on. The restaurant closed on May 15, 2010, but The Highliner opened briefly in its space in 2010. The restaurant reopened under the name Empire Diner, under executive chef Amanda Freitag, in January 2014.

Creation

The Art Moderne dining car that served as the physical structure of the Empire Diner was constructed by the Fodero Dining Car Company in 1946. Situated at 210 Tenth Avenue, on the corner of West 22nd Street in Chelsea, Manhattan, it was closed and nearly abandoned in 1976 when new owners Jack Doenias, Carl Laanes, and Richard Ruskay renovated "the former greasy spoon on then-grungy 10th Ave. and turned it into the landmark restaurant [that] ... became a major force in the Chelsea Renaissance that allowed art galleries, hotels, and other restaurants to replace the machine shops, gas stations and auto parts stores that then dominated the landscape."