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.

.

      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.     

..

.

Circa : early 1960s of the Hilltop Diner along Reisterstown Road

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.

.

.

.

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.

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.

.

...

  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.

.

Bel Loc Diner, Towson Maryland, just North of Baltimore.

Not quite diners, but Carry outs / Drive ins.

.

Baltimore's Oriole Tower Drive In - Circa 1950's  - Baltimore Sun Photo.

..

.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  ) .

..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 )

.

A surviving old Burger Chef Restaurant in Baltimore, Reisterstown Road and Hayward.

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 ?

.

.

.