MARVELOUS NIGHT

So the word has come down that another NYC classic diner, the Neptune, at Astoria Boulevard and 31st Street, will close at the end of business on July 28, 2024. I had only been in the Neptune once, years ago, but it was something of a storied place. It gained notoriety right off the bat when it opened in 1984 as David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve stopped in for lunch while shooting scenes for the vampire vehicle “The Hunger” that year. It is true that the owners have two other Neptune Diners in the area, one near me in Bayside, where it took over a former Jackson Hole burger joint a few years ago.

Here’s another diner I have researched on and off over the years, most recently when I walked the length of Grand Street in Manhattan, one of a number of NYC roads bering the “grand” moniker. I did the walk in the spring of 2022 and little did I know that the better part of two years after that were a real ordeal that left me in doubt whether I would ever walk more than a few blocks again, as I was in bouts of pain from an undiagnosed hernia and recurring sciatica. The hernia was finally repaired in September 2023 and I’m in “remission” from the sciatica for the moment and am back prowling the streets. But it was worrisome for awhile.

None could say with precision how old the Moondance, on 6th Avenue and Grand Street, was; most accounts had it there as early as 1933, making it the oldest freestanding diner in the city, while it was open. It was originally known as the Holland Tunnel Diner (the tunnel mouth is a block away on Varick). The railway car-inspired diner retains several original and/or distinctive elements; chrome detailing, a barrel roof ceiling, wrap-around windows, counter & stools, as well as a famed retro revolving moon sign by the late architect/designer Alan Buchsbaum & designer/signmaker Jim Rogers. Actresses Courtney Cox and Kirsten Dunst have played Moondance Diner employees on TV and the movies.

After decades as a somewhat humble greasy spoon, restaurateur Larry Panish upgraded the decor and menu in the 1990s without sacrificing a classic diner feel before selling in 2001. Diner owners, The Extell Group, was set to demolish the diner and construct a high ride condo in its place. However, concerned citizens spoke up: Michael Perlman, Queens preservationist & founder of the Committee To Save The Moondance Diner, and Kyle Supley, Brooklyn preservationist, immediately joined forces & campaigned to save the diner, when its fate was in limbo in 2007.

Extell donated it to the American Diner Museum, which, in turn, sold it to Vince and Cheryl Pierce of LaBarge, Wyoming, where they moved it in 2007′ unfortunately it was closed and put up for sale in 2012, and I have lost track of its fate. The James Hotel replaced the Moondance at 6th and Grand in 2009 (architect: Eran Chen). It is part of  a chain of luxury hotels with franchises in Chicago and New York. Of interest is its rooftop pool and bar, “The Jimmy.”

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7/25/24