Baltimore's most famous and well
known diner came to light after Barry Levinson
produced the movie Diner in the
early 1980's. The diner, known in the movie was the
Fell's Point Diner, was actually based on
memories Levinson had of the Hilltop Diner
in Northwest Baltimore City. The Hilltop Diner
still stands today, long since closed as a diner and
is currently being used as a liquor store , as seen
in the pictures below. The Hilltop Diner is
located on the west side of Reisterstown Road, just
south of Rogers Avenue, across the street from the
old Crest Theatre. Below is a snapshot of
the location used in the movie, now developed into
housing and with no signs what so ever of the set
for the movie.
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The silver diner seen
below is the diner Barry Levinson used
to make the movie. In the movie, the diner was
set up on a waterfront property in Canton ( above
) that has since been developed with housing,
south of the American Can Company building.
The old Diner was moved downtown and is
currently the Kid's Diner, and serves food to
this day . The diner seen below that are of
the actual old Hilltop Diner on Reisterstown
Road, which still stands to this day, used as
a liquor store.
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![]() Circa : early 1960s
of the Hilltop Diner along Reisterstown Road
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Many
of the diners in the area were outside City Limits,
along Rt. 1 and Rt 40.
( See Kilduffs Route 40
page for more of these ) .
Below , is the Bonnie Brae
Diner in Harford County, a few miles North of
Baltimore along Rt 40. The old diner has been torn
down, and replaced with a Sheriff's Office.
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When diners first started popping up
in American Cities, many were made with the ability
to be moved quickly, just in case the location
wasn't as profitable as first believed. The Penmar
Diner, shown above , was located on Maryland Avenue,
just south of North Avenue, in the 1920's. I don't
believe it was at the location for long.
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Baltimore
was known for at least two chain diner restaurants,
Little Tavern and White Tower. Here are a few shots of
the White Tower which was located on Howard Street
just north of Centre Street. |
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![]() Westward Ho ,
1960's era Western High School Yearbook photo -
Baltimore Md..
.White Tower at
Howard and Centre Street, downtown Baltimore,
hangout for Western High School students - mid
1960's.
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One of the
surviving Little Taverns ( above ), located
in Highlandtown ( Southeast Baltimore City ), which
was torn down in the block on Conkling Street , when
the Grand Theatre was torn down. A library now
stands on the site.
.
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Not all
is lost, we still have atleast one prime example of
the old Little Tavern left in Baltimore, on
Belevedere Avenue. One can only wonder it's fate,
which was last used as a church .
YIKES
! Update 2013 ....The building has
been stripped down to it's shell. . . . !
.Anyone
know what became of the building ? I
hope someone saved it.
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New Ideal Diner U.S. Rt 40 - Pulaski Highway Aberdeen , Maryland |
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Ayers Diner U.S. Rt 13 Salisbury, Maryland |
College Park Diner U.S.Rt 1 College Park, Maryland |
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Edgewood Diner U.S. Rt 40 - Pulaski Highway Edgewood, Maryland ( No Longer there, site now a McDonald's ) |
Dixie Diner 6425 Pulaski Highway ( U.S. Rt 40 ) Baltimore, Maryland ( No Longer there - site near I-895 overpass ) |
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Elkton Diner U.S. Rt 40 - Pulaski Highway Elkton , Maryland |
Magnolia Diner U.S Rt 40 - Pulaski Highway Joppa, Maryland Razed |
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...............................![]() Laurel Diner ( New Laurel Diner ) U.S. Rt 1 Laurel, Maryland .... ![]() ![]() |
Boyers Diner Thurmont, Maryland |
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State Diner Wilkens Avenue Baltimore, Maryland closed |
Towson Diner 718 York Road Towson, Maryland |
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...........![]() ...............................................Overlea Diner ...............................................Belair Road ...............................................Baltimore, Maryland ...............................................Still Open ! |
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Double T Diner U.S. Rt 40 - East Baltimore, Maryland |
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![]() Bel Loc Diner,
Towson Maryland, just North of Baltimore.
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Severn Farms Drive-in Crain Highway & New Cut Road Severn, Maryland |
Not quite diners, but Carry outs /
Drive ins.
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![]() Baltimore's
Oriole Tower Drive In - Circa 1950's -
Baltimore Sun Photo.
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![]() .Postcard View
Oriole
Tower Drive In
2035
North Broadway ( Broadway and Harford Road )
Baltimore, Maryland
Long gone, it
was on the Northeast corner, close to where the
McDonald's is today. In later years, it operated
as the James House Restaurant (
changed names around 1960 ) .
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........................................................................................![]() ![]() ..A few old ads
for the Ameche's Drive In Restaurants,and rival
Gino's. The two later merged, under A-GFoods, and
once McDonald's arrived, Ameche's went out of
business, and was slowly followed by Gino's, which
carried Kentucky Fried Chicken. The surviving Gino's
were later converted to KFC Restaurants. ( Thanks
Sarah )
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..............................................................................................................![]() ![]() A surviving old
Burger Chef Restaurant in Baltimore, Reisterstown
Road and Hayward.
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.........................................................![]() ........................................................Orye's Drive In .............................................................25th and Kirk ........................................................Baltimore, Maryland |
....![]() .......Am I way off , or is this the same place many years later ? ( Update - I was way off - the Orye's Drive In was located where the firehouse on the Southeast corner now stands) |
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........![]() Hobb's Drive In 5643 Edmondson Avenue Baltimore, Maryland |
Hot Shoppes
Postcard sayes "
found around Washington D.C., Baltimore, and
Philadelphia."
Anyone remember
where one of these was located ?? Please tell us !!
We did find one
old address ; 5807 Harford Road.
Remember it ?
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Kilduff's now
has 3 servers and 3 domain names : http://www.kilduffs.com/ http://www.kilduffs.net/ http://www.kilduffs.org/ All three sites are mirror sites of the original. ..........Kilduffs - On the web since August 2002 Kilduffs is a hobby web site - We do not profit from anything posted on this site, nor do we accept any advertising. |
Please feel free to
email Kilduffs with any questions or
comments .......................................... ![]() Updated - 2017 |
.
We didn't forget these, but just
don't have much information yet ; Harleys Sub
Shops : 211 McMechen Street , 1001 East 25th
Street , 16 West Allegheny Avenue ( Towson ), 5041
Reisterstown Road, 5820 Gwynn Oak Avenue, 425
North Howard Street , 2047 East Monument Street ,
Fort Holabird.![]() Addresses for Little Taverns : 32nd and Greenmount Avenue, 2001 East Monument Street , 1/2 East Mount Royal Avenue, 523 South Conkling Street, 519 East 25th Street , 923 West North Avenue, 3200 West Belvedere Avenue, 2002 Harford Road, 35 East North Avenue, 115 West Baltimore Street. ( I'm sure there are more as well ..... ) Addresses for Bickford's in Baltimore include : 3 North Calvert Street, 4 West Fayette Street , 105 North Howard Street, 5 East North Avenue, 421 North Howard Street. Addresses for Oriole Cafeterias include : 19 East Baltimore Street, 11 East North Avenue, 5100 York Road. .
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