Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar (formerly known as Miss Albany Diner and Lil's Diner) is a historic diner in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

, built in 1941 and located at 893

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, one of the oldest streets in Albany. Used as a set for the 1987 film '' Ironweed'', which starred

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and

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, it was added to the U.S.

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 2000.

History

In 1929 the site was occupied by a lunch cart that provided hot food to workers in the area. It was succeeded by a

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term ...

diner built by the Ward & Dickinson Dining Car Company. The current building was erected in 1941 and originally called Lil's Diner. It is a " Silk City Diner model, manufactured by the Paterson Vehicle Company in Paterson, New Jersey, one of the leading diner manufacturers of the time. The building is typical of the prefabricated diners that were common from the 1920s through the 1940s, built to resemble railroad cars and incorporating elements of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

design. With its interior of cherry wood and porcelain enamelled steel and a geometrically tiled floor, it is one of the few pre-World War II diners in the United States in near-original condition. The interior was depicted by the

photorealist Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term ca ...

artist Ralph Goings in his 1993 painting ''Miss Albany Diner''. The diner changed hands over the years and was called successively Elaine's, the Firehouse Diner, and the Street Car Diner. The "Miss Albany" name was shared by a chain of several now defunct Miss Albany Diners owned by Stillman Pitts which were popular in Albany during the 1920s, one of which (on Central Avenue) is explicitly mentioned in William Kennedy's novel '' Roscoe''. When Kennedy's earlier novel '' Ironweed'' was made into a film in 1986, the diner was restored for use as one of the film's principal locations and given the name "Miss Albany Diner".Di Nicola, Dan
"Ironweed Producers Hampered by Weather, Anachronistic Sets"
''

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'', February 6, 1987, p. 30. Retrieved 22 September 2010. At the time, a product placement bidding war ensued between

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and

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over whose logo would be on the top of the diner.

Cliff Brown years

In 1988, after the filming of ''Ironweed'' ended, the diner was bought by Cliff Brown and his wife Jane. Cliff Brown, a former Albany resident and retired insurance salesman for

New York Life New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company in the United States, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and is ranked #67 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United State ...

, gave it the name used in the film, which it has retained to the present day. At Brown's initiative, the building was listed on the U.S.

on November 6, 2000 and won a Preservation Merit Award in 2002 from the Historic Albany Foundation.National Register of Historic Places
Listings: November 24, 2000
Retrieved 21 September 2010. In late 2009, Brown was 82 and wanted to retire. The diner was put up for sale, but as of 2010, it had still not been sold and continued to be run by Jane Brown.See the diner'
official Facebook page
Retrieved 22 September 2010. The Miss Albany Diner served breakfast, lunch and coffee on a "cash only" basis and was open Tuesday through Sunday until 2:15 pm, with both waiter and

take-out A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

service. Its signature dishes included: *Georgian Eggs (eggs any style over sweet potatoes and

scallion Scallions (also known as spring onions or green onions) are vegetables derived from various species in the genus '' Allium''. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions and their close relatives include garlic, shallot, leek, c ...

s and topped with

peanut sauce Peanut sauce, satay sauce (saté sauce), ''bumbu kacang'', ''sambal kacang'', or ''pecel '' is an Indonesian sauce made from ground roasted or fried peanuts, widely used in Indonesian cuisine and many other dishes throughout the world. Peanut ...

) *Mad Eggs (a toasted

English muffin An English muffin is a small, round and flat yeast-leavened (sometimes sourdough) bread which is commonly round and tall. It is generally sliced horizontally and served toasted.David, Elizabeth (1977). ''English Bread and Yeast Cookery''. Lo ...

, topped with eggs, scallions and

curry A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included. There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in trad ...

sauce) *Calamity Jane (

omelette In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives ...

with tomatoes, onions, peppers, swiss cheese, sausage and

Tabasco sauce Tabasco is an American brand of hot sauce made from vinegar, tabasco peppers ('' Capsicum frutescens'' var. ''tabasco''), and salt. It is produced by McIlhenny Company of Avery Island in south Louisiana, having been created over 150 years ago ...

) *Mad Irish Toast (two thick slices of French toast made from challah bread, filled with

pecan The pecan (''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia, ...

s and

cream cheese Cream cheese is a soft, usually mild-tasting fresh cheese made from milk and cream.Oxford English Dictionary Stabilizers such as carob bean gum and carrageenan are often added in industrial production. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration de ...

and covered in a sauce made from

Irish whiskey Irish whiskey ( ga, Fuisce or ''uisce beatha'') is whiskey made on the island of Ireland. The word 'whiskey' (or whisky) comes from the Irish , meaning ''water of life''. Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world, though a lo ...

and

butterscotch Butterscotch is a type of confectionery whose primary ingredients are brown sugar and butter, but other ingredients are part of some recipes, such as corn syrup, cream, vanilla, and salt. The earliest known recipes, in mid-19th century Yorkshir ...

).Bryson, Lew
''New York Breweries''
Stackpole Books, 2003, p. 96. Williams, China and Blond, Becca
''New York State''

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, 2004, p. 189. The dishes were created by the owners' son Bill Brown, who had been a chef at the diner for many years. Mad Irish Toast was named one of the "Best Bites of 2002" by the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

''.Ontiveros, Sue, "Best Bites of 2002: Beguiling and delicious, these are the winners for our year", ''

'', January 2, 2003. Retrieved vi
subscription
22 September 2002.

Later years

Formerly Miss Albany Diner and Lil's Diner, Albany New York

In February 2012, two years after Clifford Brown's death, the diner was purchased by Matthew Baumgartner, the head of a property company that owns a nearby

beer garden A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees. Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...

and several other restaurants in Albany. Baumgartner said that the diner's structure would be retained when he and his partners develop the site, but that there were no plans to run it as a diner. Jane Brown and her son retained the rights to the "Miss Albany Diner" name and its signature recipes. The Miss Albany served its last meal as a diner on February 10, 2012.Barnes, Steve (9 February 2012)
"'Miss Albany Diner' producers undaunted by sale, closure"
''Albany Times-Union''. Retrieved 11 February 2012. In 2015, the diner re-opened under new owner David Zheng as Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar, with new booths, seating about 45 for lunch and dinner daily. Half of the counter remained at the original height, and half was raised to bar height with bar chairs.

Notes

External links

''Accompanying 5 photos, exterior and interior, from 2000''Mad Eggs from Miss Albany Diner
brief video by Albany filmmaker Mike Camoin on the website of the ''

Albany Times Union The ''Times Union'' is an American daily newspaper, serving the Capital Region of New York. Although the newspaper focuses on Albany and its suburbs, it covers all parts of the four-county area, including the cities of Troy, Schenectady and Sa ...

''
Miss Albany Diner
brief documentary video on the official

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channel of Hudson River Valley Profiles (Shenise Productions)
Recipe for Miss Albany Diner's Mad Irish Toast
on the website of the ''

'' {{Albany, New York Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Diners on the National Register of Historic Places Diners in New York (state) Art Deco architecture in New York (state) Commercial buildings completed in 1941 Restaurants in New York (state) Restaurants established in 1941 National Register of Historic Places in Albany, New York 1941 establishments in New York (state)

History

Cliff Brown years

Later years

See also

Notes

External links