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This is "NJ Business Beat" With Raven Santana.

>> Hello.

I'm Raven Santana.

Thanks for joining me on "NJ Business Beat."

New Jersey is known for its beautiful beaches, boardwalks, state parks, but we are also known as the diner capital of the world, with the Garden state boasting more than 500 diners.

In fact, the diner was invented more than 100 years ago.

Today we will explore what makes owners choose diners over traditional restaurants and how they contribute to New Jersey's economy.

We start with a little history lesson at a unique diner exhibit at the Patterson Museum.

I spoke with co-curator Michael Gabriel of the exhibit and author of "the history of diners" in New Jersey about what diners mean to our state.

Michael, I have enjoyed Butte -- I have interviewed a lot of different experts but you are my favorite expert because you are a diner expert.

[LAUGHTER] Let's confirm this now on the record.

Is New Jersey the diner capital of the world?

>> Absolutely, positively is, for two main reasons -- first reason that probably everyone would know is we have more diners here than any other state, probably about 500.

That number has come down, maybe 25 or 30 years ago we were closer to 600.

That number has come down for a lot of reasons.

That is the first part of it.

New Jersey was the diner manufacturing capital of the world in the 20th century.

We had more diner builders here than anywhere else.

There were some in New England, New York State, Ohio and Kansas, but at any given time we had 15-20 builders here in New Jersey.

Raven: Diners can actually be moved.

And that's part of the building, right?

>> It's part of the building but it's also part of the salvaging.

A lot of times, the diner owners owned the diner, they did not own the property, not always, but many times.

A Miniland Turner -- If a new landowner comes in, it's a valuable piece of property, you have to move the diner.

You have to put it on a tractor-trailer truck and ship it to somewhere else.

May be New York, Pennsylvania, somewhere else in New Jersey.

Or what is sad is that diner just gets torn down.

Raven: I think what's most interesting about diners is the history of diners.

And kind of the business of diners.

As owning a diner a lucrative business?

>> Sometimes you are very profitable.

The diner owners take great pride in owning their business.

They don't want to work for a boss.

They don't want to work in a factory or office, they want to own the business.

The history of the diner business goes all the way back to the 1870's, when they had lunch wagons, the ancestor's food trucks, same kind of people, they want their own business.

They like to work with their hands, they like to cook, they like meeting the public.

Not everybody does.

So that's the evolution of the business, from lunch wagons, to stationary diners, today we have very large diners.

And most of the time, during the 20th century, these diners were built in factories, small manufacturing operations, 20-30 people, prefabricated eateries that included everything.

The utilities, the electricity, plumbing, gas -- all that is included.

And the diner builders did quite well.

Raven: I think what's interesting is not all diners are 24 hours.

There's been an evolution here over time.

Talk about that.

>> There was a period there right before the COVID lockdown where a lot of diners -- maybe it was just the timing -- diners were updating their image and redesigning their interior, sometimes radically redesigning the exterior.

There's always an evolution of involvement.

And you have to appeal to your customer base.

At their best, diners are friendly, egalitarian, everyone is welcome.

Raven: There is a positive aspect when you talk about entrepreneurs and there is a change with those wanting -- those that do want to get into a business, just a change of maybe the type of person or the age of a person who may be opening a diner.

>> This is a proverbial small town business, and now, a lot of the Greek people who have run diners for many years are retiring, and maybe they don't have a son or nephew or niece or daughter that wants to run the business, so now you've got a whole new wave of people.

The best story I can tell you -- there is a diner way down in The gardens, his wife came from India, she wanted to live here because she wanted to be a nurse, he was schooled in an institution, this diner became available and he bought the diner.

You've got African-American people, Eastern European people, Hispanic people, Asian people, and I think it's wonderful, they are going to add their own culture, their own elements to the business, and the business is just going to keep evolving.

Raven: Michael, thank you so much for joining me.

>> It's been a pleasure.

Raven: Thank you.

>> Thank you for coming to the Patterson Museum.

Raven: The Blairstown Diner is one of the state's most famous diner, it played a role in the 1980's horror classic "Friday the 13th."

The Blairstown diner has much more to offer than its Hollywood has to repair but I sat down with the diner's owner and spoke to him about what it takes to run a successful diner and how the diner embraces its connection to "Friday the 13th."

It is not Friday the 13th, but it sure feels like it here.

[LAUGHTER] >> It is a daily happening here at the diner, fans come in every single day.

Raven: That's really the coolest part of this.

Tell me a little bit about the diner.

Tell me about the history here.

>> This diner was built in September of 1949.

Actually the son of the guy that built it is still in town, he is still around, he comes in.

Where we are sitting in, it was part of the original, a little bit to the back, then it got remodeled in the last major redesigns in 2004 by the last leg owner and I just did an update on a lot of things again back in 2019.

The diner has been a pretty -- That diner has the original colors and schemes the exact way it was the day he was born.

Raven: People might not know the diner -- there is some history with "Friday the 13th," which is why you guys celebrate it.

This was the actual diner that was in a scene of the movie.

>> This diner appeared long before my time, but yes, in part one, there's a scene that took place on the front counter with one of the actors and a waitress, and this scene made the diner very famous.

Raven: But the diner's also famous for a lot of other things, its comfort food, its original style, and you really have kept that and it has worked for you.

>> I grew up in New Jersey.

So way back in the day, my parents used to take us to the Claremont diner which no longer exists in Verona.

I grew up around diners.

When I was a kid, diners were always part of my blood, my parents would take us to the Pilgrim diners in Cedar Grove.

So when I saw this -- This was my hand out when I first came to this area.

And I just feel diners are comfort food.

That's what diners are all about.

Be friendly, we nice, give me something I'm going to really like.

Raven: What I love most about your story is you actually were really close to the original owner of this diner, and then after he passed, decided to take it on.

>> When I moved down here from West Orange, I was looking for a different place to kind of come for a cup of coffee and hang around a little bit, find people to chat with.

I found Pete.

Found the diner.

I thought, this was great.

Then I proceeded to find my house.

From that day forward, I was in the diner virtually every day.

And Pete and I became very friendly over the years, he was great, told a lot of jokes, watched soccer in the afternoons, he loved soccer.

Over the years, we became very friendly.

Raven: Then what happened?

>> Well, for the years, he would tease me, Gary, by the diner, I said, I have no money, I can't buy the diner, this went on for several years.

Then -- it must've been 2018, 2017, I said, ok, I'll buy the diner, if you make it worth my troubles, and he says, no, I'm not selling the diner, we continue to be very friendly, then Pete went home one night and didn't wake up, we found out he had passed on.

And then his son took over, Young Pete.

He didn't want to be here.

Pete wanted to spend weekends with his children.

He said he never spent some with his father.

For those 25 years, he was here in the diner.

So Pete, his wife, they made the decision to sell the diner, they whipped out a deal that I was able to handle, and I took it on.

Raven: We talked about owning a diner.

You bring up a good point.

It's a lot of work.

It's a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice.

Would you say it is lucrative owning a diner?

>> I would say probably back in the day, pre-COVID, it was probably the most -- more lucrative than it is now.

Now we can keep on going but you have to pay very close attention to all the overhead, food costs have gone wild, the price of labor is high, you just really have to be very careful with how we handle business.

Raven: You've decided now to sell, actually.

>> Yes, I will be 71 next month.

I have been under many surgeries over the years and I am just tired.

I'm tired and I just want to take a break.

So I'm slowly slowing myself down.

I bought it for something to do, keep me occupied, a place to come hang out.

I love talking to the people and guests, when they come in.

I spend a lot of time going from table to table and asking how they are doing, I will sit down with people and just chat.

That's what keeps me going at this diner.

I like people.

Raven: Gary, thank you so much.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

>> Thanks for coming.

Raven: The food is just one part of the diner experience, many customers and owners will tell you one of the most important factors is the atmosphere inside the diner PR read from the friendly conversations between staff and customers, to the cool memorabilia lining the walls.

We met a couple trying to experience every diner in the state.

We met up with the Richlands -- -- that were just about halfway done with their journey.

I spoke with John and Carrie about why they started this mission and what they have experienced along the way.

So, this is not your average road trip of fun and appetizing one, tell me about your mission to visit every diner injures a.

>> Jersey is considered the diner state.

It has more diners than any state in the union.

We started about eight years ago.

We were visiting a family member in the hospital.

And after we left, we said, let's go have something to eat -- it happened to be the Livingston diner nearby, so we went in and I was sitting there reading the menu and Kerry just randomly said, look up, and she took my picture holding up the menu.

Raven: How many diners have you seen so far?

>> Today is our 219th.

>> wow.

Who was in charge of what.

How do you document it?

>> He is in charge of almost everything.

I'm the photographer for the menu picture and the driver.

He is the navigator, when we get from point a to point B. Raven: You guys have been together for nearly 40 years, tell me about how you are doing this, people are watching saying, that sounds awesome, are they retired, how are they making time for this?

>> We are not retired.

[LAUGHTER] We have to leave out retired.

>> Definitely.

>> Definitely not retired.

She has a nurse and works all sorts of crazy hours.

I own my own business since the pandemic has been a little quieter.

Generally two to three times a month, usually on the weekends, we just happen to -- we just hop in the car and sort of decide, is today going to be a, ok, I decide, is today going to be a parkway day, Turnpike day, or Route 80 day?

Deciding which direction we are going to go in.

I keep a database of every active diner.

I try to keep it up as best I can.

Depending whether there's an errant we want to run, -- errand we want to do, whether there is a flea market or farmers market, a brewery or winery, or an area we haven't been to in a while, if we just did toward three -- two or three in the Somerset County area, maybe this time we will take a ride down to Roshan County.

It is sort of go with the flow.

Raven: What do you feel makes a diner special?

You've been to about -- you've been to allot, you've been to more than 200, what separates the best of the best?

>> The ones I personally like the best of the real classic ones, the ones that are -- what they consider an all-time classic diner, usually smaller, often factory built, where they actually built it in a factory I moved it to the actual location, which in the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's and 1960's was really the way it went.

It wasn't until later on where they started building them on site.

There's also a lot of the ones that I call the mega diners, the big ones, where they seat several hundred people and they are almost always busy.

More of the modern type diners.

There are some really good ones out there.

Then there are some that are sort of in the middle like the one we are sitting on now -- it is on a highway in a fairly busy area, not a huge diner but obviously very popular.

They all have their positives.

Of course there are a few that are the classic ones that have been disappointing food was -- food wise.

Raven: So this is diner 219th?

The next visit, where are you headed.

>> To be determined.

Usually, the day of -- He makes the decisions.

You mind if we go in this direction, that direction?

For the most part, it's, fine.

>> I don't know.

[LAUGHTER] Perfectly honest.

Raven: So we don't know -- >> We don't have too much left that is in the north.

We have a few up in Sussex that are north of us.

That we still have to get to.

Maybe three or four.

But just about everything else is a south, which is going to be the really hard part of this project.

We live in the North, so we probably have had about 80% of things that are within an hour -- hit about 80% of things that are within an hour.

When you start talking about Cumberland County, Salem County, that is a 4.5-5 hour round trip which is kinda far to go for a sandwich.

Raven: When do you think you will be able to complete this journey?

>> It may take five years, 25 years -- not that we will be.

>> Those other ones are going to be tough to get to.

>> We had a question with our state -- conversation with our state's governor.

He called us.

Raven: The governor called you?

Ok. >> He heard about it, he loved the idea.

We had a nice chat with him about two or three weeks ago.

And we decided, when we hit our 250 F, which will probably be sometime this time around next year that he is going to join us.

>> And his wife.

Raven: Nothing gets more Jersey than going to visit every diner in New Jersey.

Thank you so much.

>> Thank you, Raven.

Raven: The Southside 35 diner where we spoke to the Rocklands has a unique back story as well.

It has a relatively new owner and it is surprising to know how young he is, Sergio was inspired to own a diner after working in them for years, so he opened up Southside 35 and 2021 right in the middle of the pandemic.

-- in 2021 right in the middle of the pandemic.

We asked him what it's like to operate a diner post-pandemic and the one thing on the menu that he says you need to try.

Raven: Sergio, I will say, you are very young.

>> I feel like I look younger than I am.

[LAUGHTER] Raven: Because typically -- we were speaking about this off-camera, diners are handed down, from father to son, family, generations.

This is your very own diner.

>> That is correct.

Raven: Tell me about how this all came about.

>> So, I mean, I've been working on diners since I was a kid, since I was about 16 years old.

Kind of just working for other people, while I was in school.

Eventually it became my full-time job.

And I stuck with it.

There was interest and therefore may -- There was interest in there for me.

Working in diners for so many years, 20 years, at some point, there's only so much room for growth -- this is the path I chose, so I figured it is time to do something for myself.

Raven: Why a diner?

And maybe not a restaurant?

It seems like you know the basics.

You work your way up in the business.

Why did you choose to open up a diner instead?

>> If you like diners are different than restaurants.

Raven: How?

>> You are more personable with people in diners then you are a fine dining restaurant -- than you are in a fine dining restaurant.

You got to learn your customer by first name.

It's more like a homey vibe when your customers come in and they greet you by your name.

It already feels like a family.

Raven: What are the biggest challenges?

Because you've got a great location -- people are coming and going, out of foot traffic -- a lot of foot traffic.

>> The biggest challenge for me, being that we are still Ne-Yo, is basically getting the word out -- new, is basically getting the word out, having new customers and old customers, to get them to come back.

There are a lot of challenges in diners today.

With staffing and food costs, inflation and all that.

I am fortunate enough to have a reliable stuff.

Raven: Including some family members.

>> Without my family members, I wouldn't be here.

We are family operated.

Between myself and my aunt and uncle, my father.

Raven: I saw died over there in the corner, proud papa.

>> We are all in this together.

Raven: You talked about customer service and the challenges -- tell me a little bit about what service looks like, we are thinking about the summer, the fall, do you expect to see an influx?

>> So generally, the trends I have seen in diners is a, school is out, people on vacation, so it tends to quiet down a little bit.

A a lot of people are going down to the shore.

So when you are going down to the shore and you are hungry, you are not really stopping anywhere until you get there.

I will eat when I get there.

Come September when school is back in and people are getting back into their routines, you start to see business going up.

We kind of expect that.

Raven: I think about Sundays after church, I think about after sports games -- is that kind of also your peak times for service?

>> Generally speaking, Some days -- Sundays, it is peak hours.

One of the reasons is, people are going to church in the morning, after church, you get together, you go to the diner, you go for breakfast.

As you mentioned, sports teams, Little Leagues, sometimes there's tournaments, in between games, they come in.

It's nice that we are able to accommodate all of them.

Especially the sports teams.

Because usually they come in big groups.

Luckily we have the space to accommodate them and they can all sit together and really enjoy their breakfast or lunch.

Raven: Is there anything your diner is known for?

Anything that is very popular?

>> Our breakfast is -- Everybody that I have spoken to Reeves about our breakfast.

-- raves about our breakfast.

Although I think all of our meals are great.

But people really rave about our milkshakes.

Raven: Milkshakes?

Ok. >> We made a few milk shakes in the beginning and people posted them online.

Raven: Sergio, thank you so much.

Before we leave you, let's take a look at some of the top headlines in the business world this week -- We start with the latest on negotiations between RWJ Hospital and the striking nurses, the nurses overwhelmingly rejected the latest contract proposal from RWJ health which is an underwriter of NJ Spotlight news, it was a three year agreement but union leaders say that it failed to address short staffing.

A couple of days later, the nurses were dealt a blow when a judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order against what is being called disruptive picketing outside the hospital.

Leaders in Fairlawn have decided the state of the shutter Nabisco factory, despite opposition the planning board voted to replace the building with a sprawling 644,000 square-foot warehouse.

That is about the size of the potential center.

Neighbors was concerns about chemicals in the building, possible pollution from the warehouse, and more traffic congestion.

The Nabisco plant closed in 2021 after 60 years in operation.

It was originally set to be imploded, but residents pushed back, due to environmental and health concerns.

New Jersey's clean energy goals returned to the spotlight this week, as the Department of environmental protection held a public hearing on the advanced clean cars program which has a goal of eliminating the sales of gas powered cars in New Jersey by 2035.

Critics argue the state's infrastructure is not set up for electric vehicles and for your New Jerseians would not be able to afford those EV's.

Industry represented said they are at less than 10% per year testified the program would lead to significant improvement in public health and climate safety.

That does it for us this week.

Remember to subscribe to our NJ spotlight news, YouTube channel, to get alerted when we post new episodes and clips.

Next week, we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage month by highlighting unique and successful Latino and Latina business owners in our state.

Thanks for watching, and we will see you next weekend.

♪ >> Support for "NJ Business beat" is provided by -- NJ MEP.

A day of seminars, awards, and networking.

Registration online at njmep.org .

♪