The Famous Old-School NYC Diner That Was Just Picked Up And Moved (Literally)

Commuting is usually a bore — same old traffic, day in and day out. Every once in a while, though, you get to see something a bit out of the ordinary — we envy the Wisconsinites who caught a glimpse of the Weinermobile when it was pulled over by cops during a 2020 traffic stop. A few days ago, New Yorkers might have been even luckier, as some caught a glimpse of a world-famous diner rolling down the road in Brooklyn. The former Wythe Diner, which has been located at 225 Wythe Avenue for nearly 58 years, was on its way to a new home in the Navy Yard neighborhood. Original railcar eateries like Maine's Palace Diner may have been transported by train, but the railcar-style Wythe Diner, built in 1952 by the Mountain View Diner Company, made its most recent journey on the back of a flatbed truck.

Why was the Wythe Diner on the move? Brooklyn real estate being the hot commodity that it is, the space it once occupied was sold for $12.5 million back in August, and a six-story building that will house both stores and apartments is set to replace the diner. Instead of being demolished to make way for the mixed-use development, the building will be taking on a new role. It will now reside at Steiner Studios, which is the East Coast's biggest movie and TV studio, and studio owner Doug Steiner says he plans to use it in upcoming films.

The Wythe Diner may now be officially part of a studio backlot, but it's not the first time it's been on the big screen. It previously served as a filming location for the 2006 Cold War spy thriller "The Good Shepherd" as well as the 2012 sci-fi comedy "Men in Black 3." It was also allegedly the location for Kelis' "Milkshake" music video, and it featured in the 2022 Netflix horror series "The Watcher."

In addition to being a filming location, the Wythe Diner was, first and foremost, a restaurant. It originally operated under the Wythe Diner name from 1968 to 1988, owned by the Ukrainian Wrubel family. The Wrubels eventually sold the building to restaurateur Sandy Stillman, and in 1997, he opened an establishment called Relish. (Whatever the difference between a diner and a restaurant may be, it seems to have leaned more towards the latter.) Relish closed up shop in 2010, but the site served as the location for a Mexican restaurant called La Esquina until 2018 and was later used to house Blank Street Coffee's first cart as well as the Chanel Lucky Chance Diner pop-up in 2023. As far as we know, its days in the food business may be over, but we look forward to seeing it in the movies.