Diners Rockin And Rollin And Rollin
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A couple of weeks ago, [we told you](/blogx/display_blog.cfm?bid=52353349) about the famed Moondance Diners little shimmy all the way to Wyoming. Owners Vincent and Cheryl Pierce planned to load the entire restaurant[once slated for demolition]onto a semi-tractor-trailer and to haul it to LaBarge, WY, where it would become the towns one and only eatery. Though the plan sounded a bit wacky to us at the time, it turns out that the Moondance is actually [just one of many](http://americandinermuseum.org/articles/article8.php) historic diners being relocated in order to save their quintessentially American walls from the bulldozers of more profitable development.
Just yesterday, Staten Islands 75-year-old [Victory Diner] joined the ranks. The diner, also originally slated for destruction, was transported from Dongan Hills to MidlandBeach[on the back of a flatbed truck](http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=72609). The $10,000 purchasing price was paid for by the Richmond County Savings Bank Foundation, while other groups collected the $20,000 needed to cover the moving cost. I was so happy when I heard it was going to be saved I actually cried, local resident Susan Pugliese, who was married in the diner, told reporters. The Victory will be renovated and then moved again to a new location now under construction off of the boardwalk in Ocean Breeze where it is [slated to open](http://blog.silive.com/advanceupdate/2007/08/famous_diner_to_reopen_in_09.html) in the Spring of 2009. 2009? Thats a pretty long wait time for a burger and fries. But get this: This is not the first time the Victory has taken a joy ride on the back of a truck. The diner was actually moved once before, back in 1664, when it was relocated to Dongan Hills from Victory Boulevard in the Castleton Corners section of Staten Island. Talk about keeping the kitchen moving.
Photo courtesy of [fab4chiky on Flickr]