THE Cheyenne Diner began as the Market Diner in this location, 9th Avenue at West 33rd, sometime in the early 1940s. The diner manufacturer was Paramount Modular Concepts of Oakland, NJ, in business since 1932 and one of only a handful of diner manufacturers (Diner-Mite of Atlanta, GA, De Raffele of New Rochelle, NY, and Kullman of Lebanon, NJ are among the others) still in operation today; Kullman doesn’t seem to be making them anymore, however.
Paramount was the first manufacturer to introduce an all-stainless-steel exterior. Paramount diners featured a distinctive curved roofline, and rounded glass block corners. Many of its earlier diners, such as White Manna Hamburgers in Hackensack, New Jersey, are adorned with a “wainscoating” of beveled vertical porcelain panels. In the mid-40’s, Paramount introduced the all-stainless exterior.
With the demise of the Deerhead Diner on Astoria Blvd. in Jackson Heights in the early 2000s, and the closing of the Cheyenne, Paramount’s two most prominent local representative diners are now the White Mana on Tonnele Avenue in Jersey City, built in 1939 for the Flushing Meadows World’s Fair and moved to JC in 1946, and its cousin, the White Manna, on River Street in Hackensack, opened the same year. The JC White Mana originally had the extra “N” but an error by a sign repairer dropped it in the mid-1980s.
I’ve retuned to featuring the Cheyenne often as it was a favorite (the Mohegan burgers were excellent) and have launched several Forgotten NY tours in the site’s early days from there. In 2008 I patronized it a couple of days before the final roundup. I worked at Macy’s a few blocks away from 2000-2004 and ate there with several sets of work pals over the years. Its site stood empty for several years before a new narrow residential building was constructed there. After 15 years, a new deli appeared, Corner Eats.
Check out the ForgottenBook (HarperCollins, 2006), as well as Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013). I also have a chapter in the anthology “New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg” (Reaktion, 2007). As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
10/21/26