The 29 Diner is a

diner A diner is a type of restaurant found across the United States and Canada, as well as parts of Western Europe and Australia. Diners offer a wide range of cuisine, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a comb ...

in the

City of Fairfax, Virginia Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146. Fairfax is pa ...

. The diner is located at 10536 Fairfax Boulevard (

U.S. Route 29 U.S. Route 29 or U.S. Highway 29 (US 29) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs for from Pensacola, Florida, to Ellicott City, Maryland, just west of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, in the Eastern United Stat ...

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

), a short distance west of the Boulevard's intersection with Chain Bridge Road (

Virginia State Route 123 State Route 123 (SR 123) or Virginia State Route 123 (VA 123) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 1 in Virginia, U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Woodbridge, Virginia, Woodbridge north to th ...

History

The 29 Diner opened on July 20, 1947. It was built by the

Mountain View Diners Company Mountain View Diners Company, established by Les Daniel and Henry Strys in the Singac, New Jersey, Singac section of Little Falls, New Jersey, to manufacture Prefabrication, prefabricated diners, operated from 1939 to 1957, selling diners that wer ...

Singac, New Jersey Singac (pronounced SING-ack) is an Local government in New Jersey#Unincorporated communities, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Little Falls, New Jersey, Little Falls, in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passai ...

. D.T. "Bill" Glascock (deceased) purchased the diner and had it shipped to a strip of land that he owned in Fairfax, Virginia. Glascock and his wife, Elvira "Curly," ran the diner for the first several years, and thereafter leased the building to a succession of business owners. In 1973, the Tastee Diner company bought the location and it became the ''Tastee 29 Diner''. In 1992, the diner was declared to be a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been re ...

. Marc Christian Wagner, an architectural historian from the

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...

-based Preservation Associates of Virginia organization wrote the statement of significance. The opening of the statement declares: Thus, in 1992, the Tastee 29 Diner was added to the list of

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. In the late-1990s, Fredy and Ginger Guevara (Ginger being a former waitress at the 29 Diner in the mid-1960s) bought the location and restored its original name of 29 Diner. For years the diner was-open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, with the exception being

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

. In January 2009, the diner began closing on Monday nights due to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

; however, in 2014 it was restored to being open 24 hours a day. In May, 2014, the 29 Diner went out of business under the operations of Fredy and Ginger Guevara, but the property lease was quickly picked up by Fairfax native John Wood, who planned to reopen it in the summer of 2014. After some delays, the diner reopened to the public at 12:01am on September 11, 2014. It was open 24 hours Tuesday through Sunday and closed on Monday. Two days before Thanksgiving 2021, a chemical fire near the kitchen resulted in closure of the diner until further notice. A

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...

campaign by community members was approaching half of its collection goal within a week of the fire.

Culture

Fairfax, Virginia, mayor Robert Lederer has made a recent annual tradition of dining at the 29 Diner on Thanksgiving. John Walsh, host of ''

America's Most Wanted ''America's Most Wanted'' (often abbreviated as ''AMW'') is an American television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Entertainment#Fox Alternative Entertainment, Fox Alternative Entertain ...

,'' made a visit to the diner in 1999 with two bodyguards.

Bill Griffith William Henry Jackson Griffith (born January 20, 1944) is an American cartoonist who signs his work Bill Griffith and Griffy. He is best known for his surreal daily comic strip '' Zippy''. The catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?" is credited t ...

featured 29 Diner in th
July 23, 2003
an
April 21, 2012
installments of ''

Zippy the Pinhead Zippy the Pinhead is a fictional character who is the protagonist of ''Zippy'', an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. Zippy's most famous quotation, "Are we having fun yet?", appears in ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' and became a ...

''.

References

External links

Official website

* ttps://archive.today/20130130124400/http://notfortourists.com/listingDetails.aspx/Washington-DC/Restaurants/Metro-29-Diner?listingID=844320 Review of the Restaurant on NotForTourists.com
29 Diner at MasonWiki

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Companies based in Fairfax, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Fairfax, Virginia Commercial buildings completed in 1947 Streamline Moderne architecture in Virginia Diners on the National Register of Historic Places Diners in Virginia Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia 1947 establishments in Virginia Restaurants established in 1947