The diner receives daily deliveries of fresh food, and has an on-site bakery. One of its specialties is seafood.
By: Steve Rauscher
MONTGOMERY Three weeks after opening the erstwhile Montgomery Diner, the proprietors of the newly christened Red Oak Diner are still sweating the daily details. But patrons are pleased to have another eating option in the township.
"It’s just nice to have a place where you can sit and have breakfast so close," township resident Bill Miller said as he prepared to work off a pair of fried eggs with a side of bacon. "I’m happy that it re-opened."
Technically, the diner hasn’t re-opened; it’s an altogether different operation. After the Montgomery Diner closed down amid health code violations and conflicts among its owners in the late 1990s, an ownership group including Dave Glynos bought the property in 2001. It was mostly out of a desire not to be associated with the original Montgomery Diner that the group christened the restaurant the Red Oak Diner.
"We wanted to show people everything was different," Mr. Glynos said. "So, we pulled a couple of names out of a hat, based on things that were familiar to Montgomery. There’s Red Oak, there’s Orchard, Cherry Valley. We looked for something that was easy to remember."
But it’s something besides just the name that has customers like local businessman John Burnett coming back again and again.
"I started coming here when they first opened, and I’ve never had a bad meal," said Mr. Burnett, who said he dines at the Red Oak about 10 times a week. "There was a diner here years ago, and it wasn’t nearly as good. Now, the food is to die for."
Most of his customers are repeat locals, Mr. Glynos said, though he believes that many area residents still have no idea that the Red Oak is in business.
"That’s good and bad," he said. "Because that means we’ve got a lot of potential, in terms of people who haven’t come in yet. And bad because we’re not quite taking off. But we’re still working the quirks out, and every day we’re learning something new and finding something we can change to make it better."
The business plan at the Red Oak, Mr. Glynos said, is to concentrate on quality food and service, and in doing so, disabuse customers of the notion that it’s just another greasy spoon. The diner receives daily deliveries of fresh food, and has an on-site bakery. One of the restaurant’s specialties is seafood, not something most people expect a diner to do well.
"People have that perception, and I understand it," Mr. Glynos said. "But we’re buying from the same suppliers. What we’re trying to do is give people a little more quality than they expect. So instead of trying to give them a real cheap price or a lot of gimmicks, we’re trying to give them better portions."
Much is likely to change within the next few months as the owners get to know their customer base better, Mr. Glynos said. As they discover which items on the voluminous, eight-page menu sell best, they’re likely to hype those options and eliminate a few others.
One way in which they’ve already responded to customer preferences is to eliminate smoking in the restaurant after 4 p.m. Most customers prefer the smoke-free environment, Mr. Glynos said, but the new rule had the unintended consequence of driving away many township teen-agers, typically a staple demographic found in New Jersey diners.
"I’m kind of surprised that that many kids smoke today," Mr. Glynos said. "We’re not looking to alienate anyone, but we just have too many clients who don’t want the smoking."
The diner also shuts its doors by 11 p.m., another obstacle to a heavy teen-age clientele. But the Red Oak management is contemplating staying open 24 hours on the weekends.
"It’s something we’ve thought about," Mr. Glynos said. "But Montgomery is a little dead at night. I mean, I leave here about 1 a.m. every night, and I see the traffic lights are shut off."
The Red Oak opened to little fanfare last month because its owners wanted time to get it running smoothly, Mr. Glynos said, but they’re planning a sort of grand opening in the fall, to get the word out.
"We’d like to have some sort of an event," he said. "We’d like to raise our visibility. And the best advertising is word of mouth."
And in the restaurant business, "mouth" is the operative word.