Venus Diner (Gone)
Gibsonia, PA Photo courtesy Steve Felder
Off the Pennsylvania turnpike is a true gem of a diner. The Venus
Diner was established in 1959 and is impeccably maintained. So next
time you're traveling on the turnpike, take a detour off on Exit 4 and
save your appetite for some true country cooking.
Cruising along Route 8 north of Pittsburgh, this shiny stainless-steel diner was worth a detour off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Venus Diner was a classic Fodero dining car, complete with rounded corners, metal siding and plenty of late-1950s roadside style. Even the name seemed just right for this part of Pennsylvania, especially with the little town of Mars just up the road.
The Venus opened in the late 1950s and became a familiar stop for travelers passing through Gibsonia. The Vever family took over in 1982 and kept the place looking remarkably sharp. Step inside and there was plenty of good old-fashioned diner food waiting, including homemade meringue pies with those towering tops that always seemed to look better sitting behind a diner counter.
Venus Diner (Gone)
Gibsonia, PA Photo courtesy Steve Felder
And that's really what made places like the Venus fun to find. You could be rolling along the highway, spot that stainless steel gleaming beside the road, and suddenly lunch plans changed. About the only thing missing here was a flying saucer parked out front to complete the Mars and Venus connection.
After nearly half a century along Route 8, the Venus eventually closed and the old Fodero diner disappeared from Gibsonia. But unlike most diners that vanish from the roadside, this one had another trip ahead of it.
UPDATE: The Venus Diner is closed. Tried to make a visit on June 6, 2007. What a disappointment. Many thanks to Liz Eustace for info. 07-07
UPDATE: The Venus Diner was moved to Cleveland, OH where a restorer is trying to find a buyer. 01-13
UPDATE: The diner was removed from its Pennsylvania site and stored for several years before making a roughly 1,000-mile journey to Minneapolis. After a major restoration, the old Venus reopened in 2016 as the Hi-Lo Diner. The original Venus signage is gone, but the stainless-steel diner itself is still serving customers far from its old Route 8 home. 08-26
Key City Diner (Rem.)
Phillipsburg, NJ Photo courtesy Paul Bauke
That giant key hanging above Route 22 makes this one pretty hard to miss. The Key City Diner has been a familiar Phillipsburg-area roadside stop since 1955, and the great old pole sign out front looks like it was designed specifically to catch hungry travelers cruising between New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The diner sits along a stretch of Route 22 that was once loaded with classic roadside businesses. The Theodoropoulos family took over the Key City in 2000, continuing the tradition of big menus, plenty of booths and the kind of diner where breakfast doesn't necessarily have to happen in the morning. But for roadside fans, that big key sign alone is reason enough to slow down for another look.
A major electrical fire broke out in the roof on September 16, 2022, badly damaging the diner and forcing it to close. The old aluminum structure was eventually demolished, although portions of the foundation and steel framing were retained for the rebuild.
UPDATE: After nearly two years, the Key City Diner reopened on June 17, 2024. The rebuilt restaurant has a more modern appearance than the old 1950s diner seen here, but thankfully that wonderful roadside key sign still stands out front along Route 22. 08-26
Tom's Diner (Gone)
Ledgewood, NJ Photo courtesy Paul Bauke
Tom's Diner on Route 10 in Ledgewood has actually closed.
Hopefully someone will purchase it and re-open. What a shame it would
be to see this roadside diner treasure disappear. Many thanks to Paul Bauke for info.
Cruising past the old Ledgewood Circle, Tom's Diner was one of those little roadside places that looked like it belonged to another time. The 1937 Silk City diner started out as the Silver Dollar before Tom and Pauline Seretis took over in 1958.
Tom's even had its moment on MTV, appearing in Cyndi Lauper's 1984 video for "Time After Time." Not bad for a little diner along Route 46.
The diner closed in 2004 and sat abandoned beside the highway for years.
UPDATE: Tom's Diner was demolished on April 8, 2021. The diner and its roadside sign are gone. 08-26
Sullivan's Diner (Rem.)
Horsehead, NY Photo courtesy Mark Hackett
Here's a vintage diner that looks right at home along the back roads of upstate New York. Sullivan's Diner is an old Silk City dining car, complete with stainless steel siding and those great throwback shades hanging above the windows. 11-00
The diner originally served customers in nearby Elmira before Arthur and Frances Sullivan moved it to Horseheads in 1974. They ran the place for more than 30 years, serving up the kind of breakfast and lunch you'd expect from a little roadside diner like this.
UPDATE: The old Silk City diner is still serving customers at the same spot, now simply called The Diner. The Sullivan's signage has been replaced. 08-26
Zip's Diner
Dayville, CT Photo courtesy Stewart Isbell
Here's a vintage diner that looks right at home along the back roads of upstate New York. Sullivan's Diner is an old Silk City dining car, complete with stainless steel siding, a row of windows and those great throwback shades hanging above them. It's the kind of little place that makes you wonder what's cooking on the grill before you've even parked the car. 11-00
Here's a diner that still looks like it belongs on an old New England road map. Zip's Diner sits at the junction of Routes 12 and 101 in Dayville, complete with stainless steel, a classic dining car shape and that wonderful neon sign out front promising "New England's Finest Dining Car." That's quite a claim, but one look at the place and you might be willing to give it a chance. 07-03
Zip's story goes back to 1946, when retired Connecticut State Trooper Henry "Zip" Zehrer opened his first diner down the road in Danielson. Business must have been pretty good because in 1954 he bought this larger O'Mahony dining car brand new and had it hauled up from New Jersey to Dayville.
Zip's Diner
Dayville, CT Photo courtesy Stewart Isbell
Here's the fun part. The diner arrived just before Memorial Day weekend, and only about 12 hours after the dining car was set in place, Zip's was reportedly open and serving customers. No months of remodeling or grand-opening countdown needed. Hook everything up, fire up the grill and start pouring the coffee.
Conrad and Olive Jodoin operated the new diner and purchased it from the Zehrer family in 1960. The place stayed in the family through the decades, eventually passing to another generation in 1980 and again in 2010. Through all those years, the old O'Mahony dining car remained the centerpiece.
And then there's Zippy.
Cartoonist Bill Griffith apparently found Zip's just as interesting as roadside travelers do. The diner has appeared in his long-running Zippy the Pinhead comic strip, where its old dining car atmosphere and counter made a pretty natural backdrop. A diner called Zip's showing up in Zippy almost seems too perfect.
Take a look around before heading inside. There's the stainless steel, the curved diner form and, of course, that big neon pole sign standing over the roadside. Plenty of restaurants serve breakfast. Not many still advertise it from a genuine 1950s dining car beneath glowing neon.
If you're wandering through northeastern Connecticut, this is one roadside detour that's easy to justify. Grab a seat, order something off the grill and enjoy the fact that Zip's is still doing pretty much what diners were built to do.
UPDATE: The Zip Diner is a O'Mahony dating back to 1954. Many thanks to Matthias Tippner for info. 01-07
UPDATE: Zip's Diner remains open in Dayville, still operated by the same extended family. The vintage O'Mahony dining car survives, and that great "New England's Finest Dining Car" neon sign still stands out front. 08-26
Venus Diner (Gone)
Venus Diner (Gone)
Key City Diner (Rem.)
Tom's Diner (Gone)
Sullivan's Diner (Rem.)
Zip's Diner
Zip's Diner
Zip's Diner
