Similarly, Andrew Tarlow and Mark Firth, former bartenders at Odeon and Balthazar, opened Diner last year, just blocks from where they live in Williamsburg.
On Dec. 31, 1998, Mr. Firth opened Diner, on Broadway in Williamsburg, with a fellow Balthazar alumnus, Andrew Tarlow, igniting a second wave of restaurants in a neighborhood that had few options: Planet Thai, Teddy's, Miss Williamsburg Diner, Oznot's Dish.
Restaurants keep opening, diners keep filling them, and no one can figure out how long the boom can continue, what the next food trend will be or who all these people are.
As an old story goes: A pig and a chicken open a diner together, selling ham and eggs.
"And no one elected me!" Speculation about what would happen to the space next was put to rest, more or less, late last week with the surprising news that the owner, Joanne Lucas, planned to open a diner in the coming days.
It will open to diners on 2 April.
After the lake vanished, she closed the shop and opened the diner, to serve miners.
An on-site bistro is open to diners every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
Later, Nicholas Canlis opened a diner in Stockton, Calif, but Peter, his son, had his eye on finer fare.
A pizza master is opening a diner, and a high-end chef is doing a sports bar.
