The iconic Wythe Diner building has officially departed Williamsburg for a new home just over a mile away.
On Saturday, the 50-ton diner was picked up with a crane and transported on a flatbed truck to its new home at Steiner Studios, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It’s a fitting new chapter for the stainless steel structure, having appeared in dozens of films and TVs shows over the past couple of decades.
The Wythe Diner originally opened in 1968. Sandy Stillman bought the diner in 1997, where it operated as Relish Restaurant until 2010. The diner eventually became La Esquina, though the space has been vacant since 2018. Stillman recently sold the lot at 225 Wythe Avenue for $12.5 million, though he always planned to retain the building and find a new home for it.Â
“I wasn’t in the market for a diner, but it just seemed like a great thing to preserve it,” studio owner Dough Steiner told CBS.
“I hope that Steiner Studios gets to put it in all kinds of movies,” said Stillman.
The lot at 225 Wythe Avenue will turn into a mixed-use housing development with retail on the ground floor.