Unique Diner

Just down the avenue from O.B. Rude Drug Co., a diner. Unique? I’ll say it is.

[Unique Diner, 4923 Fifth Avenue, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

I’ve never seen a diner located where the traces of a multi-story building linger. A search of Brooklyn Newsstand turns up a 1907 advertisement showing a shoestore at this address. An obituary and a list of members of a WWI regiment suggest that, yes, there an apartment building once stood there.

Dig the neon: I suspect that this diner was doing well. And it looks as if someone cared enough to splash the sidewalk clean. Notice too the Bell Telephone signs, in case you need to make a call.

At this address today, El Nuevo Pueblo, a grocery store, open twenty-four hours. On the second floor, Champion Tae Kwon Do: 718-436-KICK.

Related reading
More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives