Weird Island

54. DINERS: Modern Diner

Episode Summary

The history of the classic American diner started right here in Rhode Island. It began as something called a Night Lunch Wagon. But over time the diner grew and changed, following trends in the workforce, the American family, and food culture to become the uniquely American restaurant we know and love today. And one of my favorite diners around is Modern Diner–which also happens to be the first diner ever listed on the National Register of Historic places. To Visit: 364 East Ave, Pawtucket, RI 02860

Episode Notes

To Visit: 364 East Ave, Pawtucket, RI 02860

Episode Source Material:

Episode Transcription

There’s something about a diner. When you see one, it just immediately feels comfortable. Like a place where you could meet up with your parents on a Sunday morning and catch up. A place where you can immediately feel at home.
But does it feel modern? Well, no, not exactly. When you think of diners, you probably picture something kind of quaint and retro. A throwback to a different time. That’s why RI’s famous Modern Diner is a bit ironic.
The Diner sits on East Avenue, in Pawtucket - just on the border of Providence. It’s a factory built structure from 1940, yellow-beige and maroon with an iconic train-inspired look and a ridge-mounted sign with the words Modern Diner running along it in slanting letters. But it doesn’t scream “modern.” Not anymore. Though at one point, the retro diner we know today was on the cutting edge of food service.
I’m Sara and you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week, I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny little state of Rhode Island. This week’s episode is kind of a part two - so if you haven’t already, I’d recommend listening to last week’s episode on Haven Brothers first, so you can get all the details about the precursor to the diner–the Night Lunch Wagon. And then meet me back here to learn more about how the Night Lunch Wagon settled down and became the truly Modern Diner that we’re familiar with today.
The Modern Diner always has a line of people extending out the door and down the steps into the parking lot as people wait to be seated. Today, diner’s are seen as quintessentially American establishments with homestyle food and a comfortable atmosphere.
But you might be surprised to learn that people didn’t always feel that way. The diner got its start in 1872, right here in Rhode Island, when Providence newspaper man Walter Scott recognized the need for some sort of business serving food to night shift workers after most restaurants were closed. So, he gave up his newspaper job and used his savings to buy a small freight wagon that he filled with homemade food–sandwiches, pies and coffee. And then with the assistance of a horse named Patient Dick, he rolled the wagon up in front of a newspaper office and set up shop. Each night, factory workers, newspaper reporters, and others out late lined up outside the wagon to get their food, which they mostly ate standing around or sitting on the curb.
This horse-drawn food cart sounds a lot like a primitive food truck. But it’s also pointed to as the original diner and first 24 hour food establishment–making it also the precursor to modern American fast food. It kicked off a chain of evolving late-night businesses that have had a significant impact on American food culture. And throughout the years the diner, and the perception of the diner, has changed from an establishment primarily catering to working class men, a gritty, coarse and often lonely place - to the family-friendly diner many long for today.
So, where did the transition start? Well, as more and more people followed Walter Scott’s lead, the concept of the Night Lunch Wagon was improved. Early manufacturers added things like stoves, sinks and refrigerators as well as stools for seating. And many were beautifully designed and painted.
But soon night lunch wagons got so popular that they would create traffic and block roads if they continued operating from nighttime into the day. In addition, the detailed paint jobs flaked and wore over the years and not all owners were able to keep up with maintenance. And as electrical power gained prominence and horse-drawn trolleys went out of service, some enterprising individuals bought junked trolley cars and turned them into cheap lunch wagons. So Night Lunch Wagons started to get a bad reputation as in-the-way, run-down establishments catering to questionable urban nighttime populations.And people started to complain. So many towns and cities passed ordinances either banning them entirely or restricting hours of operation. Generally, they mandated that the wagons be off the streets by 10AM.
But not all Night Lunch Operators were willing to comply. Many saw the strict nighttime only regulations as limiting, so some started settling down. They abandoned their horses, planted their businesses on the sides of roads, and transitioned from mobile to stationary operations. And that’s when the diner industry as we know it today really took off.
There were three manufacturers that had the greatest lasting effect on the American diner: First there was the Worcester Lunch Car Company, which made a name for itself in fine wood and porcelain panel diners. Then the Tierney Dining Car company, famous for introducing things like the indoor toilet, exhaust fans, and electrical lighting. And finally, the Jerry O’Mahony Diner Company. Many believe it was O’Mahony who, sometime around 1913, established the first stationary diner–though actually the word “diner” would come later. O’Mahony likely had the greatest impact on the diner industry. It’s said the company produced nearly 2,000 diners from 1917 to 1952, and they became the standard by which all others were judged.
But while the diner was visually beginning to take a form closer to the one we’re most familiar with today, it still was primarily a male, working class establishment. Those working in the diner were often men (not the female waitresses you might be picturing). And those eating at the diner were mostly men, as well. Diners became familiar sights in factory districts, along high-volume highways for truckers, and in downtown retail districts supported by mechanics, craftsmen, and construction workers.
In the late 1920s, diners expanded “booth service” to try to appeal to women, thinking they might feel more comfortable seated at a booth than on a bar stool. But most assumed the diner really wouldn’t overcome its male dominated culture.
Diner’s flourished through prohibition (as their primary competitor, the saloon, took a hit). And sales were strong through the Great Depression, as diner’s advertised low prices. And then WWII happened.
Prior to the late 1940s, American working class families rarely ate meals away from home unless they had to. But following the war, Americans were eating away from home more than ever before. People started to have more money to spend, and busy work schedules and food shortages made eating at home more challenging. But while more people were eating out than ever before, the diner started to face trouble. Manufacturers started relocating from cities to suburbs, where land was cheaper. And as they moved, many factories started incorporating their own cafeteries–taking business away from diners that had previously served as dining facilities for factories.
Many diners went out of business. Those hoping to survive needed to adapt, quickly, to the changing landscape. Another significant change to come out of the war was the role of women in the workforce. With American men fighting in the war, women ran things at home. So, finally, the time was right for women to have a role in diner culture. First, there was the introduction of the diner waitress. Previously, if a woman did work in a diner, she might be behind the counter, cooking. Now, waitresses were front and center - more visible than the cook. And culture started to shift, as the restaurants became known both for good home-style food and lovely waitresses.
Then there was the post-war focus on the American family. And enterprising diner operators began marketing the diner as a middle-income family restaurant with family dinner specials announced in newspapers and radio commercials. Diner design began to favor booths and tables instead of seats at the counter, and many diners even added separate, larger dining rooms attached to their units. The aesthetics started to emphasize cleanliness as diner operators looked to visually communicate that the days of the dirty, dilapidated male dominated establishment were behind them. The 1940s and 50s are when stainless steel diners with formica countertops started to become common.
And these family-friendly diners began to pop up in different locations. No longer confined to factory districts in cities or on roadsides for truckers, diners popped up near residential neighborhoods and suburban shopping centers. Places with more room and more parking. And it worked. Families eating together started to become a common fixture in diners, and diner construction saw a boom.
But, eventually, the same trends that worked in the diner’s favor brought about its demise. Family restaurant chains and fast food restaurants came into the market, built specifically to appeal to families eating out and families on the go. And diners just couldn’t keep up. In the 1960s, sales dropped dramatically. In the 1970s, many diner manufacturers and operators went out of business entirely.
One diner to go out of business was the Modern Diner, in Pawtucket. Initially built in 1940 in Pawtucket’s bustling downtown, Modern closed its doors in the 1970s. It’s not just that diners were hurting. Downtown Pawtucket had seen a decline as well, as mills and jobs moved south following WWII. In the late 1970s, the Pawtucket Redevelopment Authority planned to demo Modern and the block it was on to make way for new construction.
Around the country, diners were demolished left and right. Diner lovers today would be outraged. But of an estimated high of 6,000 diners that once operated, less than half survived.
But luckily for Modern, the RI Historic Preservation Commission decided to do something. They argued that Modern Diner should be added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, this seems like a no-brainer. But at the time, Modern was only 38 years old. Not exactly historic yet. And definitely not old enough by the National Register’s standard of 50 years or older. But the Park Service made an exception and the Modern Diner was the first diner in the country to be accepted on the National Register of Historic Places.
And there’s a good reason why that was the case. If you’ve been to the diner, you know that it has a pretty iconic look. The Nomination Form for the Register includes the following, evocative description. It says, “The diner’s visual impact has something of the arrested drama of a high speed train hurtling out of a tunnel–caught in a still photograph.”
Modern is unique. It’s one of only two surviving examples of this very specific style of diner built between 1939 and 1941. It’s called a Sterling Streamliner, one of a line of customized, factory-built, self-consciously modernistic diners built in the late 1930s and early 1940s before the manufacturer shuttered during the war. Sterling Streamliners were designed to look like the streamlined trains popular at the time, capitalizing on the visual imagery of trains to communicate speedy service and mobility. The design not only communicated the service, but it also made the diner visible. It’s the same type of “building as a sign” architecture applied to the Apex Building, also in downtown Pawtucket. Something designed to grab attention. Sterling Streamliners have been described as “landmarks in the history of American design and food-service merchandising.” And as of today, Modern is the only example currently open for business. There’s another well-maintained Sterling Streamliner in Salem, MA - but the diner is closed as of 2022.
Though Modern Diner was saved from demolition, it actually stood dormant for years before it was put on the market. But in 1986 father/son pair Nick and Arthur Demou bought the rundown diner and moved it to its current location where they painstakingly reassembled and repaired the diner before opening it back up for business.
Today, the Modern Diner is iconic. So iconic, actually, that the owners were able to legally protect their right to the name and image of the distinctive diner. And the reason they had to do that is because the diner got into a legal battle with one of the biggest, most litigious companies around. Walt Disney.
In the 1990s, a clothing manufacturer making licensed Disney apparel started selling a shirt that showcased Mickey and Minnie Mouse standing in front of a black and white image of the Modern Diner. It’s not just that this image looks just like Modern. It actually has the diner’s iconic sign and name right there in the photo. These shirts were sold all over, in stores like Sears, K-Mart and Cador (all stores that are throwbacks today). And after a few people started showing up in the shirts, the Demous knew they had to do something.
So, like David stepping up to face Goliath, Nick Demou sued the Walt Disney Co. "The name and the image of the Modern Diner have become so distinctive that the diner has a legally protected right to control their use," said Demou's attorney. And it seems he was right. Disney and the clothing manufacturer settled the trademark suit out of court.
But it would be selling the diner short to say that people are lined up every weekend solely because of the diner’s iconic look. Modern also has some of the best food around. I love diners. And I love going out for breakfast. And the Modern Diner is one of my all time favorites. It would be so easy to just get by on the diner’s historic status. But the owners pump out tons of unique specials, like their Custard French Toast, which has been called the “Best Diner Dish in the country” by Food Network’s show Top 5 Restaurants.
If you love diners, Modern Diner is a must visit. But it’s really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to local diners. I’m guilty of saying, “You could do a whole podcast about just this topic…” every single week when I research something. But you could truly do a podcast telling the story of each diner in Rhode Island.
There are examples from all of the major manufacturers that shaped the diner industry. You’ve got Modern Diner’s Sterling Streamliner design. There’s Jigger’s Diner in East Greenwich, which is a 1950 Worcester Lunch Car Company model. There’s the Seaplane Diner in Providence, which is an O’Mahoney style vintage silver diner from 1949 that was actually wrapped in wood paneling and a mansard roof. A trend that took place in the late 60s and early 70s as places like McDonald’s lead the charge in remodeling to feel less gaudy and more family oriented. I aspire to put together a list and check out all the most notable diners this summer, so feel free to share your favorites and if I make a list, I’ll share it as well!
At one point, the diner was the most prevalent 24 hour establishment in the country. Today, with McDonalds and Burger King and all of the other fast-food spots, diner’s really don’t need to be open 24 hours anymore. Of course, some still are. But most aren’t. We don’t need diner’s in the same way we once did. They offer up something more intangible today.
From its earliest days, the diner has always represented the American dream in action. The premise was that anyone, from any background, could start their own business and create success. And at their height, many did. From the original night lunch wagon days through the pre-fab diner days, the majority of diner builders, operators and customers were either immigrants or second-generation Americans. Diners allowed immigrants to grow economically and socially in American society. And as you look at menus today, you’ll see the immigrant influence, with many featuring Greek, Italian, and increasingly Latin American dishes.
And it’s this diversity of who ran diners and who patronized diners that really made them the American icon they are. A 1932 article put it best, “The lunch wagon is the most democratic, and therefore the most American of all eating places. Actors, milkmen, chauffeurs, debutantes, nymphes du pave, young men-about-town, teamsters, students, streetcar motormen, messenger boys, policemen, white wings, businessmen—all these and more rub elbows at its counter.”
The diner has grown and changed with America. It represents both mass culture, with the pre-fab, mass produced exteriors, and local culture, as diners are most often mom and pop businesses with strong ties to the local community. Diners have followed waves of immigration, changes in the American family, and changes in how, and what and where we eat. But the thing that hasn’t changed is the casual atmosphere. And maybe as we, as a country, as people, continue to change, the diner will change with us in subtle ways, while somehow, magically, always feeling the same.