Where Have All the Greek Diners Gone?

There are certain things that make a New York City neighborhood livable and authentic: an independent bookshop, a family-owned hardware store, a nonjudgmental liquor store, and a Greek diner. So when Cozy Soup ’n’ Burger announced it was closing this month, after 40 years of serving up its namesake dishes at Astor Place and Broadway, the news was yet another data point in the culinary phenomenon I’ve come to call Greek Diner Collapse Disorder.

Last fall, the Ritz Diner at Second Avenue and 65th Street served its final Western omelette. Star on 18 Diner in Chelsea shut its doors after the landlord sold the site to developers. Ask a local and they can rattle off the names of the fallen as if they were Achilles pining for Patroclus: Burger Heaven near Bloomingdale’s, Silver Spurs on LaGuardia Place, Joe Junior near Gramercy Park, Neil’s Coffee Shop in Lenox Hill.