Such a bummer. I've been going there for 40 years. They announced it with only maybe 1.5 weeks notice so the place has been a zoo. I tried to go around 4:30pm last Friday, and forget about it. I saw a picture online from Saturday and people were lined up outside waiting.
Yup I know it well. Worked there during summers for the OB BOE busses while at Rutgers. Took a walk around the Nike base one day even though it was off limits.
i agree... i was hoping that PPDiner was going to be replaced by another DINER... now the WAWA killed any hopes of that. BOMBER Country !!!!
Holy Shi$... I loved clair & coby's.... Outback bites.... give me that old family style restaurant and food any day.
Anything left there? And were/are there any underground tunnels?
Maybe if wait staff was paid more than 5.26/hr (or whatever the pay rate is now), there would be more people working in diners.
I think the one on Morris Ave was the Betsy Ross Diner and then became Tropicana. My family used to go there every Sunday AM after church at St Michael's. Phil Rizzuto also ate there most Sunday's. I think the Queen Elizabeth was on the corner of Route 1 and North Avenue. Park Avenue Diner was our go to after skating a the rink in Warninanco Park (before playing hockey from 11 PM to 6 AM. Great times!
The one in South Plainfield now has a Kohl's, Marshalls & Home Goods, Joe's Crab House, Brick House Tavern & Dick's and many others in that shopping center.
After further thought into the deep reaches of my brain I am now remembering the Peter Pank did not replace Clair & Coby's. It replaced Coby's. When they moved to the Rt 9 34 split they changed it to Clair & Coby's.
There was still some fun stuff there in the early 80’s when I was running HS cross country. RBC used to go all over for that…(Harshorne, Bell Labs, Spring Lake boardwalk, Ft Monmouth).
The Tropicana is definitely open and still going strong. Don’t know about The Bayway Diner.
Ahhhh, the Raritan Diner, my favorite diner of all time. Peter Pank Diner? I don't ever remember
I went to Somerset diner in college. Some lunatic started glomming on to us. We tolerated the guy. Then two cops came in and he started saying **** to them. So we left and one of the cops said he was gonna breathalyze all of us because of this lunatic. One guy was okay to drive. We had to convince the cop that we didn't know the guy. Finally the guy announced he was a street professor and we were all aliens. I looked at the cop and said "really? We'll leave this guy for you". He told us to get lost.
Get in line. I tried to buy the "Sweater Fish" in 1983 and later, for my then girlfriend (now wife) in 1987 - thought that thing was so cool, especially with the yarn from the sweater having been caught on a rock in the painting, starting to unravel. In fact, I always used to wonder if the guys from Weezer had seen that painting and if it had somehow inspired Undone (Sweater Song).
My guess, and I have no inside information, is that it will be another apartment complex. These complexes have been sprouting up all over Bound Brook, Somerville and Raritan along the Raritan Valley line of NJ Transit. Another one was just built a block or so west of Chitch's, in addition to the two built east of it.
We ended up going last night around 6:30 and our party waited on line for about 40 minutes before getting a table. The staff limited orders to one pie for every two patrons, and no takeout. Pizza was just like I remember it.
Thanks for the info!! I was going to go last night and use my gift certificate up, but guess I'll just keep that with my Chitch's tshirt as a memento of the place. Used to go there with my mom all the time as a kid and later as an adult, so for me, I found it sort of funny timing the place is closing on what would have been her birthday, 4/29.
Buddy of mine went to Tops after a Halloween Party. He was dressed as a clown. Some bad guys came in and were causing trouble and the "clown" did a number on them.
Covid aftermath or not if it was profitable, they would be open.
...well.. i have nothing to do with that, so not sure why you are dumping it on my post. But, for the record, waiter and waitress wages have always been scrutinized as always being unfortunately low, which is true, but certainly not an new debate.
