Courtesy of Google Earth
An Iconic Williamsburg Diner is Getting Converted into a Steiner Studios Movie Set
The 50's style diner on Wythe Ave in Williamsburg served its last dish in 2018 and has sat mostly vacant since
Steiner Studio, the colossal complex of soundstages and production facilities tucked into the Brooklyn Navy Yards, is making it official with a cherished, but long-dormant Williamsburg diner.
According to The New York Times, the iconic, time-capsuled 50’s-style restaurant at North 3rd Street and Wythe Avenue that has served as a backdrop in film, TV, and commercials, is reportedly being shipped in its entirety a few neighborhoods over to the studio’s expansive campus, where it will be fully converted into a movie set. “I priced a new diner,” said real estate developer and chairman of the studio Doug Steiner, adding how the acquisition “will cost about the same as having a new diner, but I’d rather have this one.”
Steiner claims he took notice of the Wythe Diner—which was once a fully functional, actual diner, pre-fabricated in New Jersey and all—while working on his first residential development project on Metropolitan Avenue in the 2000s. The space was bought in 1998 and sold (just last week) by Sandy Stillman, housing Stillman’s foie gras-slinging restaurant Relish until 2010, as well as a Mexican eatery and pop-ups for Blank Street and Chanel. But it hasn’t served a dish since 2018.
In its place, the new owners intend to build a 28-unit apartment building, which is obviously what the neighborhood needs most at the moment.
