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That metallic “whoosh” you heard over Williamsburg this weekend? It was just the Wythe Diner—yes, the actual building—dangling from a crane and sailing over North Brooklyn like a 50-ton stainless steel time capsule.
On Saturday, the 57-year-old railcar diner was hoisted from its perch at the corner of Wythe Avenue and North Third Street before it was carefully swung onto a flatbed truck and driven two miles south to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Its destination: Steiner Studios, where the retro restaurant will spend its twilight years as a permanent film and TV set.
The ‘50s-style caff first opened in 1968 and has been a resilient shape-shifter ever since. Once a classic diner, it transformed into the late-’90s Williamsburg hotspot Relish; short-lived upscale Mexican spot Café De La Esquina; and even a Chanel pop-up. It’s even a trained actor already, having logged appearances in Men in Black 3, The Good Shepherd, The Bride and more than 150 shoots over the years. (For a restaurant that hasn’t served a full menu since 2019, it’s had a busier IMDb page than most actors do.)
Until recently, the diner’s future looked far less glamorous. The lot it sat on was sold this summer for $12.5 million to a developer planning to build a mixed-use building with ground-floor retail and 28 apartments on top of it. Demolition of the deli seemed imminent—until Steiner Studios stepped in at the eleventh hour to rescue it. Doug Steiner, the studio’s chairman and longtime neighborhood local, told the New York Times back in August that the diner was one of the few places he’d grab a bite “before major gentrification” reshaped the area. Saving it “just seemed like a great thing to preserve.”
Crews spent Monday morning unloading the structure at the Navy Yard, where it will be rebuilt on a new foundation and prepped for its next round of close-ups. Past hits filmed at Steiner include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Inventing Anna, Boardwalk Empire and Only Murders in the Building, so expect the old railcar to pop back up on screens soon.
For Sandy Stillman, the diner’s former owner, who ran Relish from 1997 to 2010, watching the diner glide through the sky was emotional. "I hope that Steiner Studios gets to put it in all kinds of movies," Stillman told CBS, calling it “one of the best days I’ve ever had.”
Williamsburg may be down a chrome-and-Formica landmark, but at least it didn’t vanish—it just switched careers. Now it’s a full-time movie star.
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