Diner 24 is reviving the 24-hour diner that has been facing problems staying alive in NYC.
A New York Times article in May 2019 highlighted the glut of diners, often referred to by locals as Greek diners, that have been closing in New York City, including six in Queens alone. It cited that they’ve been disappearing due to “increasing rents and enticing offers that are hard to pass by,” including being ripe for development into luxury apartments.
But don’t tell that to Stratis Morfogen and his partner Philippe Bondon, who are opening Diner 24 on Third Avenue near 22nd Street, not far from Gramercy Park. And while many New York City eateries such as Veselka, a classic Ukrainian East Village coffee shop/diner, cut back their hours to midnight during the pandemic after being open all night for years, Diner 24 will be open 24 hours.
It was slated to open in early February but for a variety of permit and bureaucratic reasons got delayed several months until it’s opening in mid-May. Asked why it got delayed so long, Morfogen says succinctly, “Department of Buildings was backlogged for six months.”
Morfogen is a global restaurateur whose latest franchise Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, which launched in the East Village, has a $5 million investment from two Shark Tank investors, Kevin O’Leary and Matt Higgins. He also owns a slew of other eateries including Brooklyn Chop House in the Financial District.
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He partnered with Bondon, who was his general manager for 20 years at the Brooklyn Chop House and knows the restaurant business inside and out. “He’s used to running a high-volume restaurant,” Morfogen exclaims. They also have financial partners who helped capitalize the new venture.
The Owner as Disrupter
Asked why he wanted to revive the classic diner, whose days looked to be numbered, Morfogen replies, “Because I disrupt everything I do.”
A global restaurateur Stratis Morfogen with New York City roots is opening a 24-hour diner in Gramercy Park, Diner 24, and might explore opening up more in the future, if it succeeds. .
His DNA Is in Queens Diners
But Morfogen has classic diners in his background. His dad operated the Hilltop Diner in Fresh Meadows, Queens and the Atlantis Diner in Rockville Centre in Nassau County. Diners are part of his upbringing, his DNA.
The major difference, he notes, between him and his parent’s generation was he embraces technology, and they didn’t. “I don’t know one diner that ever advertised on Google,” he exclaims, in his forthright, New York City rapid-fire, though heartfelt, style of talking.
In his view, their stubbornness at adapting to technology contributed to the classic diner’s downfall. And he vows not to repeat that miscue.
It’s All About Digital Marketing in 2024
“Walk-by traffic doesn’t matter anymore; it’s all about digital marketing,” he explains, about what drives business to a modern diner. When people search Google for 24 -hour diner, all day breakfast, late-night snacks, 24 Diner will emerge as the leading search engine optimization response (SEO), he predicts, and that will generate traffic.
Asked to describe its menu, Morfogen says, “comfort food for everyone, 24-hour breakfasts, with lots of optics for social media.”
And being a classic diner, it must also specialize in old-fashioned burgers and pies for dessert. Hence, it will offer 12-ounce and 18-ounce smash burgers accompanied by disco fries, and like the quintessential diners, will have its cakes rotating on display.
Will Diner 24 be the first of many because Morfogen is already franchising his Brooklyn Dumpling Shop concept? He starts to say he intends on opening two or three more in Manhattan, but then takes a step back and says, “let’s get the first one right” before it embarks on expanding and then exploring franchising.
Diner 24 will succeed, he repeats, because of technology, which has become his mantra. It will allow “smart-phone control, digital and wireless.”
It accommodates 100 guests inside, and in the warmer months, 75 outside, and contains a staff of about 40 employees.
Why will Diner 24 thrive? Morfogen replies that it’s filling “a void in market for great comfort food 24 hours a day.”
