Daniel Zilka’s Unfinished Projects

Created on Monday, 07 April 2003 21:46

Published on Monday, 11 July 2011 21:46

Written by Randy Garbin

Compared to what it formerly looked like, the restoration of the Birdseye Diner gets high marks from its owner and his customers.

Daniel Zilka presents himself as an expert in museum-​quality diner restoration. Citing credentials as director and founder of the American Diner Museum and a Masters degree in historic preservation from the University of Vermont, Zilka sells restoration services to diner owners who have or seek vintage structures. Mr. Zilka is not, however, an architect, nor is he licensed in any of the trades ultimately required to perform these restorations.

Daniel Zilka during our interview with him for our “By Booth and Nail” issue published in 1994 that featured his various restoration projects. In the past ten years, Mr. Zilka has engaged in several projects. To date, we have found only one satisfied client of a completed restoration still in business: The Birdseye Diner in Castleton, Vermont. The owner, John Rehlen, has expressed to us his complete satisfaction with the work performed, which was extensive and involved the recreation and remounting of porcelain enamel panels. Unfortunately, Mr. Rehlen is in the minority.

Daniel Zilka began the partial exterior restoration of the Rosebud Diner in Somerville, Massachusetts in December, 1996. The work involved removal of a brick façade from the right side, and its replacement with newly fabricated porcelain panels, stainless steel trim, and a new door. Six years later, the work remains unfinished.

In 1996, George Englesson of the New Ideal Diner in Aberdeen, Maryland hired Zilka to replace the diner’s “Flex-​Glas” exterior trim. Englesson, reports that he has not seen Zilka in at least a year, and that this job also remains unfinished. While Zilka has replaced the decorative glass strips across the front of the diner, Englesson says he and Zilka had a disagreement regarding the extent of further restoration work. Englesson simply wanted new Flex-​Glas in new channels. Mr. Zilka reportedly wanted to pull apart the entire side and replace the wood working underneath. Englesson says he’s happy with the work actually performed, but he plans to finish the job using another contractor.

This photo, taken in 1999, shows ongoing work at the Rosebud Diner, started by Daniel Zilka in 1996. Update 2011: This work was completed by another contractor in 2005. In 1997, the owners of the Center Diner in Peekskill, New York, retained Mr. Zilka to perform restoration work on their 1940s Fodero. The Georgalos family initially had no plans to restore their historic diner, but eventually acquiesced at the urging of the Peekskill Business Improvement District which had recommended Zilka for the job. A small, family operation, the owners could hardly afford the impact dealt to their business by the lingering disruptions. One waitress at the diner during this time described the relationship as devolving into “a lot of conflict.” This matter ended in litigation with Zilka bringing suit for non-​payment. The parties settled out of court, and the work was finished by a local craftsman.

In 2000, Zilka removed a portion of the non-​sympathetic exterior renovations from the façade of the Post Road Dinerin Norwalk, Connecticut, in order to determine its make and approximate vintage. Removal of brickwork and portions of the roof indeed revealed a 1940s Paramount diner, but Zilka didn’t leave it as he found it, nor did he properly seal the newly exposed structure. After repeated requests to apply at least a temporary fix went unanswered over a period of months, the owners resorted to hiring another contractor to restore the brick façade and repair the resulting water damage. The owners have already fully renovated the diner’s interior and plan eventually to restore the diner’s exterior as well.

In January 2001, Scott Koska of the State Line Diner in Foster, Rhode Island retained Mr. Zilka, based on his much-​publicized position as Museum director, to repair the diner’s original vestibule. According to Mr. Koska, Mr. Zilka left behind a hazardous entry way, through which an exiting customer stumbled and struck his head on a metal railing. The vestibule still sits on the ground behind the diner. The injured customer never brought suit against Koska, but he hasn’t returned either.

Owners of the Seaplane Diner in Providence, Rhode Island and the Route 28 Bar & Grill in Salem, New Hampshire also hired Zilka for restoration work in the late 1990s. The work remains incomplete.

Kicked on Route 66

Yet, few who have retained Zilka’s services have experienced the difficulties and frustrations of Steve Gasior.

In 2000, Mr. Gasior retained Mr. Zilka to restore the former Berlin Diner purchased and transported from Berlin, New Jersey. Now located on Route 66 in East Hampton, Connecticut, Mr. Zilka initially estimated he could complete the project in time for a spring 2002 opening. The early 1950s Mountain View diner would require considerable exterior and interior restoration work, yet he typically showed up on the site to work alone. The exterior required a complete fabrication of an all-​new stainless steel skin, and the interior needed, among other things, new ceiling and wall panels, and electrical fixtures.

The three-​sectioned diner moved by O.B. Hill of Natick, Mass., featured a factory-​built kitchen and bathroom module. While Mr. Zilka’s stated desire and practice to save anything and everything involved with diners has a certain nobility in theory, this doctrine often flies in the face of restaurant economics. Nevertheless, Mr. Gasior submitted to this doctrine and “saved” the diner’s kitchen section, paying approximately $20,000 extra to transport this massive, empty box to Connecticut. A “diner expert” possessing a modicum of knowledge in the realities of contemporary restaurant operation would have counseled otherwise. In the end, fire and health codes required Mr. Gasior to completely reconstruct the entire section – leaving a concrete slab floor as the only remaining original part.

Mr. Gasior, already busy with his deli operation, pressured Mr. Zilka to pick up the pace. Temporarily mollified by assurances of his commitment to the project, Gasior now hoped for a winter 2002 opening. Eventually, Mr. Zilka hired Jeff Davis of Providence, Rhode Island to assist him. As Mr. Gasior tells it, for the next several days, Zilka and Davis would arrive on the site together. Then Mr. Zilka failed to appear, leaving Mr. Davis to work alone and unsupervised. Eventually Mr. Davis quit in disgust, demanding payment for his services. For his efforts, Jeff Davis received payment from Daniel Zilka in the form of a check for $1,500. The check bounced.

Steve Gasior now finds himself in a difficult position. Mr. Zilka had specified and ordered new stainless steel panels to clad the diner, but these have lain for months now on the diner’s basement floor. Zilka has not produced documentation illustrating the façade’s reassembly. Gasior’s assumption that only Zilka knows where each part goes may have some justification, as this level of stainless work has only a handful of qualified practitioners.

In the months Mr. Gasior endured these delays, Mr. Zilka has appeared all over the Northeast brokering the donation and/​or sale of at least five diners while offering his restoration services to the new owners. As Mr. Gasior’s project withered, newspaper accounts placed the impressario preservationist in Binghamton, New York; Wayne, Pennsylvania; Kingston, New York; Springfield, Vermont; and elsewhere supervising the removal of diners from their sites. On March 22, for instance, Mr. Zilka appeared in Ligonnier, Pennsylvania to instruct volunteers for the Lincoln Highway Heritage Association on how to restore Serro’s Diner.

On its foundation but still months away from opening, the Route 66 Diner as Zilka left it. [Update: Steve Gasior sold the diner to Claire Bergeron in 2004, who moved it to Pocasset, Massachusetts and finally restored it in 2010. It is currently open for business.]

The diner that Mr. Gasior hoped to open in May 2002 remains months away from completion, costing him thousands of dollars a day in lost potential revenues. Gasior admits that he never sought references before hiring Zilka, but he assumed that the Executive Director of a diner museum would possess the qualifications necessary to do the work. Needless to say, Gasior now has his doubts.

Abuse of museum resources

At one point during a meeting this past January, Mr. Gasior finally threatened to bring suit against both Daniel Zilka and the American Diner Museum. Despite Mr. Zilka’s assertions that the Museum has nothing to do with his independent restoration services, Gasior could probably make a strong case proving otherwise. Mr. Zilka uses his museum association as his primary credential in selling his services. He also uses museum storage facilities to store spare parts and tools. He freely uses its library of donated and purchased ephemera for his research. And he currently resides in the same building that houses the Museum’s new “temporary” office. According to the meeting minutes of the Lincoln Zoning Board of Appeals from February, 2002, the building’s new owner Ritu Gorczyca is also Mr. Zilka’s fiancé. Exactly where does the Museum end and Daniel Zilka begin?

Mr. Zilka’s considerable knowledge of diner history, coupled with a cunning display of charm and impeccable grooming, serve his ambitions well. However, what he does not possess is any real contractor’s experience nore any liability insurance to protect him, the Museum, and volunteers who often accompany Mr. Zilka on salvage operations. His on-​site work on diners of varying structural condition creates a hazardous industrial site, governed by regulations covering any type of construction that also involves work with plumbing and electrical systems.

We would agree that Mr. Gasior – like the sorry group that shares his fate – bears much of the responsibility for his predicament. A simple check of references might have prevented most of these fiascoes. However, Mr. Zilka is not strictly an independent contractor. He represents the American Diner Museum and remains its chief mouthpiece. What does this pattern of complaints, all levied by diner owners, do to help this museum’s reputation and future prospects?

If Daniel Zilka is so intent on restoring diners, why then doesn’t he polish his skills on the half dozen or so already in the Museum collection? To date, he and the museum have restored exactly none of their own diners.

We have always maintained that the best way to preserve diners is to keep them operating and viable. To us, a diner in a museum represents a failure of sorts, because these structures were designed to serve and foster community. Sadly, the realities of the industry today often make this impossible. Still, we see such donations to any museum as a last resort. Certainly, anyone even remotely interested in their preservation would never intentionally hinder their operation or jeopardize their profitability. Restoration work performed on operating diners should take this into account, and while a museum-​quality restoration may look great and might score a major “feather in the cap” of the restorer, it is not always the practical solution.

That aside, is it too much to ask Mr. Zilka to at least finish what he started, or at least facilitate completion by others?

At a meeting I had last year with Robb Kok, the Museum’s chairman, we discussed the fate of the museum and the crisis it had with its credibility within the diner industry. We discussed everything mentioned here – and more. In the end, I left Kok with this final question: “If you needed to fill the position of Executive Director, would you hire this guy?”

Kok replied with a shrug.