BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Robert Giaimo and Ype Von Hengst in Rockville, MD, 1989.
BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Remembering the very first Silver Diner.
Five hundred. That’s how many restaurants we visited before opening the first Silver Diner. Back in the 1980s, owners Bob Giaimo and Ype Von Hengst set out on a research-turned-road trip. The unlikely duo—a New York-born Italian-American entrepreneur and a classically trained Dutch chef, respectively, “like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger,” says Ype—wanted to know what made these iconic dining establishments so special.
And so for the next several months, they set out across the United States, driving up and down the Atlantic Seaboard, hopping on flights to Texas and touring the Midwest, even traveling along the Pacific Coast of California before realizing, if they ate one more tuna melt, they might just burst. Along the way, they saw every kind of diner you could imagine—old and new, small and big, simple breakfast counters and well-oiled 24-hour machines, with the most memorable experience being at The Dining Car, a multi-generation Art Deco institution, just up I-95 in Philadelphia.
The Dining Car in Philadelphia, PA.
“The family welcomed us with open arms,” says Bob. “We came for a few hours and then said, ‘Okay, we know diners.’ To which the father laughed and said, ‘You want to know about diners? You come here, you open up, you close it down, and then you’ll know.’ And much to his surprise, we said, ‘Absolutely!’ Ype and I even had to spend the night at the son’s house—and share a tiny bed. His feet were at one end, and my head was at the other. It was hysterical. We hardly slept.”
Of course, Bob and Ype were no stranger to the restaurant industry, having already co-owned the D.C. area’s beloved American Café. But from six in the morning to two at night, they watched this Pennsylvania diner in action—and awe. The swoosh of the waitresses. The ching of the cash register. The ding of hot plates being pushed through the pass. The lightning-fast splash of the dishwashers. Every walk of life swinging beneath its neon sign through those metallic doors, and all looking for a different version of the same thing—a home away from home.
“Diners are really about the reliability and the relationships.”
“At the time, diners weren’t known for having notable cuisine—it was quantity, not quality, and really about the reliability and the relationships, more than anything else,” says Bob. “They were authentic and egalitarian gathering places. At a diner, people knew your name, if not your order. And that gave us our foundation. From there, we knew, with Ype’s help, we could reinvent the food into something great.”
So in 1989, on the busy corner of Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, the partners opened up their first Silver Diner, with blue-plate specials and Seeburg jukeboxes and a bustling open kitchen, the classic entrance bearing the same logo you see today. Day in and day out, lines ran out the door. And soon enough, reviews rolled in from both patrons and the press. “Now showing, bigger than life, booked for a long run and soon to be appearing at a suburb near you is the Silver Diner, starring an Oscar-worthy hot roast turkey sandwich on toasted sourdough bread with stuffing and real mashed potatoes,” wrote food critic Phyllis Richman of The Washington Post, highlighting our fresh, homemade, and healthy ingredients, which set us apart from other restaurants both then and now.
The original Silver Diner in Rockville, MD, 1989.
Three decades later, those lessons learned on the road still carry on across nearly 30 locations. From a nostalgic American icon to an award-winning restaurant with a menu full of food fit for modern-day, Silver Diner is ready to serve for generations to come.
“We’re not just tuna melts, but if we took the tuna melt off the menu, there would be a rebellion,” says Bob with a smile.
And best of all, these days in Rockville, we continue to see some of the same customers—plus their kids, and even grandkids—who have been dining with us since day one.