Neptune Diner (GMaps)
Nov. 28, 2016 Staff Report
The number of diners across New York City is on the decline and it is not just Manhattan establishments that are closing, according to the New York Times.
Health-department records show that there are half as many diners in New York as there were just 20 years ago, reported the Times. In fact, there were 398 diners last year as compared to 1,000 a generation ago.
The article stated that the diners everywhere are coming under pressure.
“Manhattan has certainly seen more diner closings than other boroughs,” according to the Times. “That said, with rising costs in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, classic diners like the Neptune and Bel Aire, both in Astoria, Queens, could soon be under threat.”
The Times article follows a report put out by Crain’s last year that stated that the rising cost of business has played a large factor in the closings. The Evergreen Diner in midtown makes $1.5 million in revenue, wrote Crain’s, but with a $25,000-a-month rent and other expenses, the owners can barely turn a profit.
Grub Street which reported on the declining number of diners Monday listed five diners that are open that people should visit. One was the The Court Square Diner on Jackson Avenue.
It wrote:
Court Square Diner: The Long Island City restaurant is your classic diner in all of its chrome glory, with a by-the-books interior straight out of Back to the Future. The menu is, of course, approximately the length of a textbook, with chicken-salad melts, ultimate omelets, and chocolate custard pie.
