Published December 16, 2016

Resurrecting America’s Great Old Diners

Over the past three decades, Steve Harwin, who owns Diversified Diners in Akron, Ohio, has refurbished and tricked out old diners and turned them over to new owners who want to give them new lives. When Harwin first became seriously interested in flipping diners, he road-tripped across the U.S., canvassing the diner scene. Most of the diners were concentrated in the Northeast, as a handful of companies, including Fodor, Silk City, and Jerry OMahony, had mass-produced classic diners, some of them incentivized by Franklin Roosevelts New Deal economic programs after World War II.

Resurrecting America’s Great Old Diners