The 29 Diner is a diner in the

City of Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. At the 2010 census the po ...

. The diner is located at 10536 Fairfax Boulevard (

U.S. Route 29 U.S. Route 29 (US 29) is a north–south United States highway that runs for from Pensacola, Florida to the western suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland in the Southern United States, connecting the Florida Panhandle to the Baltimore-Washington me ...

/ U.S. Route 50), a short distance west of the Boulevard's intersection with Chain Bridge Road (

Virginia State Route 123 State Route 123 (SR 123) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Woodbridge north to the Chain Bridge across the Potomac River into Washington from Arlington. It goes by ...

History

The 29 Diner opened on July 20, 1947. It was built by the Mountain View Diners Company of

Singac, New Jersey Singac (pronounced SING-ack) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Little Falls Township, in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States.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 rec ...

. Marc Christian Wagner, an architectural historian from the

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

-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 United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. 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 feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

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

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

facing the United States, however in 2014 it was restored back 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

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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,'' 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 comedy, surreal daily comic strip ''Zippy the Pinhead, Zippy''. The catchphrase "Are w ...

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