DENVILLE — Another classic New Jersey diner has shut down forever and could soon face the wrecking ball.
The West Side Diner on Route 46 closed its chrome-accented doors last month, the last in a line of diners that had operated on the spot for decades. The West Side was bought by a neighbor on the highway with an equally long lineage, the family-owned Anchor Ace Hardware.
Anchor purchased its next-door neighbor early this month. Owner Mitch Epstein is mulling his options but has already put up signage pointing customers to expanded parking for his business.
The former diner will be either sold and moved, or demolished. Epstein hopes to have a plan in place by the end of the year.
“We’re growing exponentially and need more space, more parking,” said Epstein, whose father, Bernie Epstein, bought the hardware business from its original owners in 1986. “On a busy day, customers would just drive by because there was no place to park.”
Denville diner built on Silk City ‘bones’
The West Side was built on the “bones” of a classic “Silk City”-style diner that had been operating on the spot for years before, Epstein said. Formerly known as the Arrow Diner, the original building had fallen into disrepair when it received a significant makeover in 2008.
That renovation, built in the original foundation, abandoned the familiar Silk City diner-car design. But with its bright red awnings, chrome, cozy booth seating and a large neon sign outside, the West Side still recalled a bygone era of Jersey diners.
Michele and Jim Greberis, owners of the iconic Summit Diner, bought the Denville eatery in 2017 and gave it another makeover, rebranding it as the Summit West Diner. The business survived the COVID lockdown, thanks in part to a $14,000 Morris County Small Business grant awarded in 2022.
When the Greberis family decided to downsize their operation, they found an eager buyer right next door.
“When they decided to move on, it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to buy property on the highway and we just couldn’t pass it up,” Epstein said.
A family hardware store thrives. What’s their secret?
Anchor became an Ace Hardware affiliate in 2018 and is one of two family-owned hardware stores in the area that have flourished for generations, even as others in the industry succumbed to competition from big-box retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s.
The other is Denville Hardware, which was sold by its owners earlier this year to another Morris County family business, Ricciardi Brothers. Denville Hardware, located in downtown Denville on First Avenue, is currently undergoing renovations but is still open for business.
“It’s interesting that you can have two hardware stores less than a mile apart in the same town,” said Anchor manager Jeff Hartman. “We’ve coexisted for years. They do their thing and we do ours.”
Epstein shared the secret of his store’s success: “Strictly customer service,” he said. “Have the right products, enough of the right products. You welcome people when they come in and you solve their problems.”
How NJ became the “Diner Capital of the World”
New Jersey earned its reputation as the “Diner Capital of the World” in large part through the legacy of the Paterson Wagon Co. The North Jersey business and its Silk City Diner division manufactured about 1,500 railcar-style restaurants from 1926 to 1966.
The Summit Diner is perhaps the most famous Silk City property in the state still operating in its original form.
Another famous Morris County location by Paterson Wagon − Tom’s Diner on the Ledgewood Circle in Roxbury − was demolished in 2021. Before that, it was used to film scenes for the video of Cyndi Lauper’s 1984 hit, “Time After Time.”
Other Silk City diners in Morris County lost to history include the Madison Diner and Travelers Diner in Dover.
“We were thinking about seeing if somebody wanted to obtain the diner and move it elsewhere,” Epstein said. “The Silk City bones are still there. But it’s not the original diner so we don’t know if it’s worth anything.”
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter/X: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Another classic NJ diner faces wrecking ball in Morris County