State Diner
Ithaca, NY
Photo courtesy Dirk Burhans

Cruising through Ithaca, keep an eye out for the great old neon sign above The State Diner. With STATE, DINER and OPEN 7 DAYS glowing above the street, it's the kind of sign that can make you hungry even if you weren't planning to stop.

The diner has been serving Ithaca since 1936 and became one of those classic 24-hour joints where college students, locals and late-night travelers could always find some coffee and breakfast. Along with the usual eggs, pancakes and burgers, the longtime Greek-American diner serves up gyros, spanakopita and baklava. Not a bad selection for a roadside stop.

A 2012 electrical fire badly damaged the diner and forced it to close for several months. The State came back, reopening in 2013 with a larger dining room.

UPDATE: The State Diner remains open seven days a week, although the old 24-hour schedule is gone. Best of all, that vintage neon sign still lights up State Street. 08-26

Jennies Diner
Ronks, PA
Photo courtesy Michael Sekeres

Rolling east along Route 30 through Lancaster County, that big roadside sign in front of Jennie's Diner is pretty hard to miss. The stainless-steel Silk City diner sitting underneath it only adds to the scene, especially with farm fields nearby and the occasional Amish buggy passing along the highway.

The diner opened here under the Gehman's name in the 1950s and later became Jennie's in 1979. Inside, the place still had the look of a real old dining car, complete with the counter, rows of windows and even some of the original green window shades.

Jennie's closed briefly in 2015 before reopening as the Route 30 Diner. Fortunately, the old Silk City structure didn't disappear during the change.

UPDATE: The diner remains open as the Route 30 Diner. The huge roadside sign survives too, now updated with the newer name but still standing over the Lincoln Highway like it always has. 08-26

Penn Queen Diner (Demolished)
Trenton, NJ
Photo courtesy Bob Jagendorf

Now that's a diner sign. The Penn Queen Diner had one of those towering roadside displays that was almost impossible to pass without taking another look. DINER, RESTAURANT and COCKTAILS filled the sign, with a big glowing crown sitting on top just in case there was any question who ruled this stretch of Route 130.

Despite some old photo captions placing it in Trenton, the Penn Queen was actually down the road in Pennsauken. It opened in 1964 and spent nearly 60 years serving travelers along this busy South Jersey highway. The Katsikis family ran the place for decades, making it a familiar stop for everything from breakfast and coffee to a late-night meal.

But for roadside fans, that sign was the real show. Big, colorful and wonderfully overdone, it was exactly the kind of neon landmark that could make you change lanes and pull into the parking lot.

The Penn Queen closed for good in May 2022, and the property sat empty for a couple more years.

UPDATE: The Penn Queen Diner was demolished in July 2024 for new commercial development. The great crown-topped roadside sign is gone too. 08-26

Club Diner
Bellmawr, NJ
Photo courtesy Bob Jagendorf

Here's another South Jersey diner that's hard to miss after dark. The Club Diner in Bellmawr lights up the Black Horse Pike with that big rooftop neon sign, the kind of sign that tells you exactly where to turn when you're hungry.

The Club has actually been around longer than this diner building. The business started in 1946 in a much smaller horse-drawn dining car, which is where the Club name came from. Then in 1972, a larger diner was brought down from Hazleton, Pennsylvania and rolled into place here.

That newer diner kept the place going through the classic 24-hour era, serving plenty of late-night coffee, breakfast and whatever else sounded good after midnight. The exterior was updated over the years, but thankfully the big neon lettering stayed part of the roadside scene.

UPDATE: The Club Diner remains open on the Black Horse Pike, although it no longer keeps its old 24-hour schedule. The rooftop neon still survives and lights up the diner after dark. 08-26

Mom's Peppermill Restaurant (Demolished)
Hightstown, NJ
Photo courtesy Bob Jagendorf

Just off the New Jersey Turnpike sat one of those roadside places with a sign bigger than the building needed. Mom's Diner, originally known as Mom's Peppermill Restaurant, served travelers along Route 33 near Exit 8 for decades.

The place actually started in the late 1940s as a small hot dog stand feeding crews building the New Jersey Turnpike. As traffic picked up, Mom's grew into a full-size roadside restaurant, and the sign out front became part of the attraction.

And what a sign it was. A giant mechanical peppermill turned above the road while blinking lights made it look like pepper was sprinkling down. Up top, a big neon arrow pointed travelers toward Exit 8. About the only thing missing was an actual dinner bell.

Mom's eventually shortened its name and kept serving locals and highway travelers for years, but the restaurant closed sometime around the late 2000s. The building then sat abandoned beside Route 33 for a long stretch.

UPDATE: After years of sitting vacant, Mom's Diner was demolished in 2023. The old roadside sign is gone too. 08-26

Roadside Diner (Rem.)
Wall Township, NJ
Photo courtesy Bob Jagendorf

Here's one old diner that's managed to hang on along the Jersey Shore. The Roadside Diner sits near Routes 33 and 34 in Wall Township, where its stainless-steel body, red roof and striped window awnings still give it plenty of old roadside character.

The diner has gone by a few names over the years, including the Circle Diner and Rusty's, but the building itself is a vintage Silk City dining car dating back to around the mid-20th century. For years, it was exactly the kind of place you'd expect to find beside an old highway intersection, complete with counter stools, chrome and plenty of coffee.

It also picked up some pretty good pop culture credentials along the way. The diner appeared in the 1983 movie Baby It's You, showed up in Bruce Springsteen's 2007 video for "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," and its interior was used for the cover of Bon Jovi's 1994 album Cross Road. That's a lot of New Jersey music history packed into one little dining car.

The Gerakaris family ran the place for 27 years before wrapping up their run in March 2025.

UPDATE: The Roadside Diner reopened under new ownership in July 2025. The old Silk City diner and its roadside signage are still there, serving another generation of travelers along Routes 33 and 34. 08-26