Loyal customers, staff miss Silver Diner in Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

When Silver Diner closed for the night on New Year’s Day, the 11-year run of the 1950s-themed eatery in Virginia Beach ended.

Citing lagging sales and higher costs, Robert Giaimo, co-founder, president and CEO of Silver Diner, said the shuttering of the Virginia Beach and Newport News locations were a necessity.  Earlier, a Chesapeake store closed; there are no more operations in Hampton Roads.

During the past decade-plus, the Maryland-based chain grew a local following. Folks came into the silver-clad eatery, resplendent in neon and jukeboxes at every table, for breakfast, Blue Plate Specials, burgers, milkshakes and other ice cream creations.

“We would eat there once or twice a month,” says Leona Baker, 40, of Thalia. “For us, it was a great family place. It was near our house, so we loved to roll out of bed on a Sunday morning and cozy into a Silver Diner booth and stuff our faces with pancakes and steak and eggs.”

The Bakers always brought a stack of quarters to jam to the Kings – Elvis and Michael Jackson – and “The Addams Family” theme song on the jukeboxes.

“The whole retro-diner atmosphere was fun,” Baker said, “but the food, though simple, was always well prepared and fresh. And the service was good.”

Steve Batton, 53, of Pungo was another regular, having enjoyed ice cream and father-daughter talks for the past eight years at the restaurant. He would patronize Silver Diner at least monthly, enjoying both the atmosphere and the menu with local ingredients.

“Their involvement in the community through all the fundraisers was great,” Batton said. “I also enjoyed going there on kids’ night; it was a blast to see all the families in there having a good time.”

For Baker and Batton, hearing about the closure was a surprise. Baker said she read about it online. Batton heard about it firsthand when he recently showed up to eat there.

“They were closed up,” Batton said. “I couldn’t believe it. I will miss the food, and a couple of my favorite waitresses there. It’s sad to see them go.”

It was a similar reaction for Rachel Achee, 41, of Chimney Hill, who went to Silver Diner with her family almost every week.

“I was shocked, as they were usually quite busy, and I was very sad since my children loved going on kids’ night,” she said. “We were also very close to some of the staff.”

During a kids’ night promotion, her daughter won Busch Gardens tickets.

“It gave me a chance to take them, that I never would have had otherwise,” Achee said.

But for some, the loss is much more than the closure of a favorite restaurant.

Jamon Taswell, 28, of Indian Lakes, has worked at Silver Diner for a little more than six years, starting as a line cook and working toward a goal of kitchen manager.

Taswell was also a store trainer. He’s a Culinary Institute of Virginia student who graduates in April and was in his sixth week of externship with the restaurant.

“I enjoyed the friendship,” he said, “as well as the relationships I had with both store locations – as well as our regular customers. I met my fiancé there four years ago.”

He described Silver Diner as original and nostalgic.

“Everyone who came to dine with us had a great experience,” he said.

Like the customers, Taswell was surprised by the closure.

“I got a phone call on New Year’s Day from the corporate office about an hour before they closed the doors,” he said. “That night when I went there to see my crew, the doors were already locked.

“I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ I never saw it coming.”

Taswell said Silver Diner offered to relocate him to Maryland. But he and his fiancé just moved into a new house, and with school and other local obligations, he is unable to relocate. He said he was paid four weeks of severance.

“I’ve applied for unemployment and am currently jobless, looking for employment,” Taswell said. “I have to at least get paid what I was making just to pay my bills. My school and I are also currently looking for a new site so I can finish my four-credit externship.”