One Thing Millennials Haven’t Killed? The Diner.

Food One Thing Millennials Haven't Killed? The Diner. One Thing Millennials Haven't Killed? The Diner. Across New York City, younger chefs are tweaking the menus, prices and interiors of diners on the brink, but not too much else.

The new old-school diner still has the usual pancakes and breakfast platters — and steak frites if that's what you're craving. Credit...Colin Clark for The New York Times

Sept. 20, 2024 Last year, Jackie Carnesi received an unusual proposal. Would she be willing to leave her job as the executive chef of a popular Brooklyn restaurant to work in a nearly century-old New York City diner?

Kellogg's Diner , a chrome clunker at a busy corner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had shuttered suddenly last January after its owners filed for bankruptcy . The new owners wanted to keep it a diner. But they needed a chef.

Had the proposal been made earlier in her career — Ms. Carnesi, 37, previously worked at Empellón Cocina and Roberta's — she would have said no. "My ego would never have listened," she said. But they'd caught her at the right time.

"How could you not be excited about being part of something that has so much history?" Ms. Carnesi said. "It's high pressure, right? You don't want to let anyone down."

Kellogg's, which opens to the public on Friday, is the latest in a string of decades-old diners that have been saved from closing or spared the ultimate indignity — being razed to make way for luxury apartments.

To keep these diners open for decades longer, their new owners are looking to chefs with modern sensibilities and approaching the restaurants like restoration projects, tweaking menus, prices and interiors with extreme care.

Louis Skibar, one of the new owners of Kellogg's Diner, first put this experiment to the test at Old John's , a 73-year-old diner on the Upper West Side where he once worked as a delivery boy. When the restaurant closed during the pandemic, Mr. Skibar took over the lease, updated the menu with the help of the two-time "Top Chef" competitor Grayson Schmitz and reopened Old John's in 2021.

"The response was amazing," Mr. Skibar said. The diner recently took over a shoe store next door.

Mr. Skibar and his business partner, the interior designer Nico Arze, believe this same formula will work for Kellogg's. They've kept the diner's name and neon sign intact, but gutted the interior to make it more expansive and bright.

Ms. Carnesi was tasked with creating a menu of elevated takes on diner foods. For her, that meant invoking her Brownsville, Texas, roots in the form of enchiladas and housemade queso while keeping classic diner fare, like hamburgers and pancakes, on the menu.

"People find a lot of comfort in Kellogg's," Ms. Carnesi said. "First and foremost, I was looking to not alienate those people."

In nearby Brooklyn Heights, Montague Diner underwent a similar transformation after the producer Gabriel Nussbaum noticed that Happy Days Diner, open since 1991, was up for sale. He shot a text to his wife: "Should I open a diner?"

Mr. Nussbaum, 41, and his business partners fantasized about reopening the restaurant with minimal changes to the interior — but that fantasy was short-lived. "It was a very lived-in diner," he said, adding, "You would pick up a booth and it would disintegrate."

The owners overhauled the interior and put together a new menu, with help from Halley Chambers and Kip Green of Margot , an upscale restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Their goal, Ms. Chambers said, was to improve the quality of the food without going too far.

Early on, for instance, they experimented with sourdough pancakes. "Hard veto," Mr. Nussbaum said. He reasoned that if his children visited the diner, ordered those pancakes and puckered, they would "lose their minds."

"It was about being true to the classics and not trying to inject too much creativity," said Ben Gross, an owner.

But they made other "concessions to modernity," he added. The diner accepts reservations on Resy — virtually unheard-of in the first-come-first-served diner landscape — and it's no longer open 24 hours. Patrons can also find bistro items like steak frites and roast chicken tucked between the classic pancakes and corned-beef hash.

Richard Gutman, the author of four books on diners , said he noticed that a new generation of chefs was taking over old diners about a decade ago, a trend that has accelerated since the pandemic. And while it may seem as if diners are frozen in place, they have always changed with the times and often reflect modern dining trends.

Today's diners serve vegan and gluten-free options — and better-than-usual pancakes are a natural step in the evolution of the American diner. "It is going to cost you more money," he said, "but you'll get better food."

Persuading customers to embrace higher prices, however, is far more difficult.

After Eduardo Sandoval and Gavin Compton took over the nearly 80-year-old Three Decker Diner in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, "everyone assumed the worst," said Mr. Sandoval, the chef and a co-owner. "It's natural."

For the first six months, he didn't touch the menu. Instead, Mr. Sandoval, 41, worked shifts at Three Decker and spoke with the regulars. From those conversations, he realized that while many customers relied on the diner's affordable prices, some were open to improvements to the food: fresh vegetables over frozen ones, a better-tasting meatloaf.

When Mr. Sandoval and Mr. Compton began making changes at the start of 2023, along with slight increases in prices of 50 cents to one dollar, the menu was mostly well-received. "Our regulars are a little particular," Mr. Sandoval conceded.

Eric Finkelstein, an owner of Court Street Grocers, also agonized over raising prices in service of better quality Reubens and tuna melts when he and his business partner, Matt Ross, took ownership of Eisenberg's, a beloved 94-year-old lunch counter in Manhattan.

"What if somebody bought Katz's, a place that I've loved my whole life, and I walked in one day, and all of a sudden they were using better bread?" Mr. Finkelstein, 42, thought to himself. "Would I be upset that they were using better bread because it didn't match my experience? Or would I be psyched?"

He reasoned that if he stayed true to the original menu and didn't get "too conceptual," he could attract a new generation of customers and the regulars wouldn't be too upset.

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