THE Market Diner, manufactured by the De Raffele Diner Company and opened at 11th Avenue and West 43rd Street in 1964, closed at the end of the business day on Sunday, November 1st, 2015. The Market rented its space from a real estate company called the Moinian Group, which had purchased the plot in 2004 but until 2015 had not had the capital ready to build what it wanted all along: a 13-story mixed use building. Thus, the Market Diner has been evicted. It’s been replaced by the Oskar, a nondescript apartment house, and there’s a Starbucks on the corner.
The Market was the last of three diners in operation on 11th Avenue in recent history; the River Diner at 11th and West 37th, where John Lennon once posed for a photo, left the scene about 20 years ago, while the Munson Diner at 11th and West 49th, where scenes from the “Seinfeld” show were filmed, was uprooted and moved to the upstate town of Liberty, NY in 2005, but after reopening there in 2007, it could not find a clientele and closed there, as well, in 2011.
I “closed” the Market with a group of friends in 2015… see this FNY page.
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10/25/22
7 comments
Happy to report that the Munson Diner reopened in 2017 and continues to be in business.
Glad to report the Munson Diner is looking good upstate. https://w42st.com/post/perched-on-a-hill-in-liberty-new-york-is-a-fabled-hells-kitchen-diner/. and we miss the Market Diner too https://w42st.com/post/shootings-seinfeld-and-sinatra-market-diner-hells-kitchen/
My sister was a waitress there for many years fur Gus.
I read that Sinatra used to hang out there late at night after a recording session.
It is rumored that there was once a Dinah’s Diner somewhere in New Jersey
Neal my mother was a waitress from almost opening until the 80s. Her name was Helen.
trying to retrace history of my Father in law. he sailed Liverpool to new York on Cunard and White Star liners 50s/60s, c40 times and talks of the diner and a ‘Cadillac kate’ who won a Cadillac for every dy of the week. they uused to earn a dollar or so, washing them for her. which peirs would they have visitied.
He also talked of shipmates who met sinatra in these places. mind blowing now… had hoped to visit the diner on a trip next week