Openings

Coffee Shop Poised to Take Over Empire Diner

Photo: Shanna Ravindra

Chelsea’s iconic Empire Diner will be replaced by a new restaurant run by the folks from Union Square’s Coffee Shop, according to Chelsea Now. The still unnamed neo-diner will serve “better food” but will look just about the same. It’ll also have a “Coffee Shop flavor,” which presumably means the kind of service that makes you want to push a button on a rocket pack and burst through the ceiling if you have to wait one more second for the check — not that the servers at the Empire Diner were all sunshine and smiles. The owner of the 34-year-old Empire apparently hasn’t gotten the memo and is still trying to work something out with the landlord: “We wouldn’t be here 34 years if our food was bad,” she says.

Fallen Empire: New tenant found for 10th Ave. diner [Chelsea Now via Eater]

Coffee Shop Poised to Take Over Empire Diner