Your call: Lou-​Roc or not

Published on Thursday, 08 September 2011 23:49

Written by Randy Garbin

I received these photos of the Maybrook Diner in Maybrook, New York from Roadside correspondent Greg Matteson, and in his email, he wondered if we have a Lou-Roc’ing in progress.

As it happens, I spoke with the owners a little over a month before receiving these, so these renovations didn’t come as a surprise, but I ponder it with heavy heart — at least as heavy as that roof looks over that poor unfortunate diner.

Owner Harry Toromanides bravely emailed me and asked what he and his brother should do.

[My brother and I] are at an impass as to some aspects of the diners design and would appreciate your input [about our] Mountain View gem which has held up beautifully considering its neglect at the hands of the old owners. We are expanding on the diner’s current size and are adding pizza as it is a big part of our reputation having a pizza shop. I would in any event appreciate any advice you may give me and my younger brother in our venture.

During a later phone conversation, he revealed that the diner, which previous owners had mansarded, now had a leaky roof. They planned a new roof that would unify the entire structure, but that it would hover over the original diner in place of the mansard.

I advised him to restore the original roof and restore the diner as best as possible. “Lead with your best asset,” I told him, “cover up everything else. The diner’s original roof lasted fifty years without any leaks, so restoration made sense. Do anything else and you will detract from the beauty of what you have. You simply cannot improve on the original design.” I later sent him photos of the recently restored Chuck Wagon Diner in Upstate New York and of the ongoing restoration of the Route 66 Diner in Springfield, Massachusetts, two diners very similar to the Maybrook.

You can see in these photos how much weight my advice carried.

So, I leave it up to you dear readers. Lou-​Roc or Not.