Roadside Fans

The red Pegasus has been the logo of Mobil, and before that Mobilgas and SOCONY, going back to 1931. The company itself is even older, tracing its origins to the Vacuum Oil Company of Rochester, NY, founded in 1866. Like so many oil companies of the early petroleum era, Vacuum Oil found its way into […]

On November 10, 2018, Spencer Stewart broke the news to the diner community that big changes were in store for the Tastee Diner in Laurel, Maryland. This rare Comac diner, one of only two operating, would be gutted, covered with a new facade, and converted to a medical marijuana dispensary. The bad news spread throughout […]

UPDATE: On my most recent Florida car rental, from Hertz, the rental car did not have a transponder with the ON / OFF switch and instead used PlatePass to track tolls. When I tried to register the car with Toll By Plate as described below, I was told I could not. PlatePass caps your charge […]

As 2014 begins, several vintage diners have recently reopened under new management, representing an interesting cross-section of diner styles, manufacturers, and degrees of preservation. We haven’t visited any of these diners yet under their present ownership, so we can’t offer any opinions on food or service. If you visit any of these diners, please let […]

UPDATE: The Arcadia Diner closed on August 27, 2013 according to a posting on their Facebook page, citing a “huge increase in our monthly rent” as the reason for the closing. We hope this pristine Worcester Lunch Car reopens soon, and a return to the Parkway Diner name would be nice as well. Whenever a […]

The Miss Albany Diner as we know it is gone. Yes, there is still a Silk City diner at 893 Broadway in the city, as there has been since 1941. For many years it was Lil’s Diner, serving working people in Albany’s industrial North End in classic diner fashion. But beginning in 1988, the Brown family […]

This posting was updated January 1, 2013 to reflect information from a newspaper article in The Times Record. When I was a child, the road to Grandma’s house was New York Route 2, leading from our home in Troy over Grafton Mountain to the small town of Petersburg. Our family’s many trips there are the […]

Welcome to the newly revamped RoadsideFans.com! The great new design is a Christmas present from my stepson, Ray Milstrey. But the fact that RoadsideFans exists at all traces to another Christmas present, 17 years earlier. The year was 1994, and my wife, Susan, noticed my fascination with Pennsylvania Diners and Other Roadside Restaurants, which we watched […]