A diner's new home on the Brooklyn waterfront
A rail car-style diner that closed its doors after serving customers in Manhattan for almost 70 years will soon serve up home-style cooking on Reed Street along Red Hook’s waterfront, a preservationist told amNewYork today.
The diner will be elevated for the best views of the water and will be near the Fairway Supermarket on Van Brunt Street, said Michael Perlman, a preservationist who helped save the diner from being destroyed.
The move could happen in a month. The diner would have to be transported in two sections and put back together in Brooklyn.
“Not only is the Cheyenne Diner rescue a historic preservation victory, but it also fulfills the trend that more New Yorker’s need to embrace going green by adaptively reusing and acknowledging an establishment's embodied energy over the decades,” Perlman said in an e-mail.
Mike O’Connell, of O’C Construction and the son of a noted Red Hook developer, bought the Cheyenne Diner, which served comfort food at 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue until closing April 6.
O’Connell signed a contract last month to purchase the chrome-covered structure for $5,000 and will now work on securing permits to transport it to its new home.
The Cheyenne closed to make way for a nine-story residential and commercial development. Perlman began working with the owner of the building and the land beneath it, George Papas, in hopes of finding a buyer who would pay to relocate the diner within the five boroughs.
