A New Spin On Diners

Spiro Hadjiyerou knows the responsibility he has taken on, but he’s up for the challenge.

One of the newest owners of the Colonial Diner on Route 18, Hadjiyerou says that he and his partner, Richard Sloan, have put a new, fresh spin on diner food, while still maintaining that slice of Americana that the Colonial and diners like it represent.

“We try to maintain the classic diner feel while trying to reinvent ourselves,” said Hadijyerou. “We’ve been here for 60 years and hopefully we’ll be here into the next century.”

To do that, Hadjiyerou and Sloan have struck a balance by taking traditional diner food such as meatloaf and gravy, turkey and more, and putting a fresh spin it. Homemade salad dressings, fresh ground meat, bread baked twice daily and fresh vegetables can be found on almost every entrée on the menu. In fact, the only item on the menu that is ever frozen is the French fries.

“We have a strong emphasis on bringing more natural foods into the diner - wild seafood, natural raised chicken cutlet and beef - we try to bring everything in fresh,” said Hadjiyerou.

The original Colonial Diner opened around 1950 and was little more than a small restaurant on wheels.

"It was a typical mobile diner, a 'Rosie's Diner,' where you can come and pick it up and move it," said Hadjiyerou.  

Over the years, the diner has been expanded and sold numerous times until Hadjiyerou and Sloan became full owners of the diner in October. The businessmen worked with the diner’s previous owner, Constantine Katsifis, since January 2010 and learned everything they could from the man whose name has become synonymous with Central Jersey diners.

“What Constantine instituted in all of his places, we keep here,” said Hadjiyerou. “Diners needed to reinvent themselves in order to compete with the IHOPs and other chains.”

And that, of course, means putting a more upscale and fresh spin on traditional diner food, something that Katsifis instituted at the Colonial as well as his other restaurants, the Skylark Diner in Edison and the Americana in East Windsor.

To this day, the Colonial Diner still works hand in hand with Katfsifis, with fresh bread, meat and seafood brought in from the West Windsor restaurant every day.

“Bread is made there and delivered twice a day,” said Hadjiyerou. “There’s a butcher shop where they make their own chopped meat, and there are various of cuts of meat, pork chops, stakes, and liver.

“We’re trying to get people to eat healthier, whether they like it or not,” he said.

Making sure that the Colonial mixes the “new” with the “old” is not a tricky feat, and overseeing much of the operation is Sloan, who works in the kitchen and remembers coming to the diner as a child and as a teenager.

“We have a great clientele, people have been coming in here every day for 30 to 40 years and they love the food here,” said Sloan. “When you get someone so loyal, you just want to talk to them,” which is something Sloan does, greeting patrons on a regular basis and letting them know that like them, he also calls the diner home.

“There has been a lot of change in East Brunswick, but this is home,” he said.

The Colonial Diner's hours are Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., Friday and Saturday from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m., and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Visit them on the web at www.colonialdiner.com.