{"id":103961,"date":"2026-01-18T14:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103961\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T14:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:22:09","slug":"why-owner-closed-beloved-staten-island-diner-and-whats-next-for-the-diner-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/103961\/","title":{"rendered":"Why owner closed beloved Staten Island diner \u2014 and what\u2019s next for the diner king"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 On a recent morning, as the breakfast crowd melted into the lunch rush, Mike Moudatsos wrapped up a meeting with a friend and took a moment to talk. It was a typical busy day for him, bouncing between diners and checking on things\u2014the daily drill. He started at Mike\u2019s Olympic Grill Diner, 1637 Forest Ave., in Port Richmond. Later, he said, he\u2019d head to his Great Kills spot, Mike\u2019s Place. For now, his wife Cathy supervised the bustling Unicorn Diner\u2014a full house inside with a steady stream of third\u2011party drivers picking up orders at the door.<\/p>\n

On this Tuesday morning, Moudatsos settled into a booth near the entrance. Customers drifted in and out, offering him a hello or a handshake, each greeting him by name. There was a reverence to it\u2014quiet, familiar, deeply respectful. Mike ticked off a variety of reasons for closing Dakota. The first sounded simple, \u201cBecause it was too close to here. I have one diner here, another 10 blocks away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheDakota Diner has closed as Mike focuses on his three other diners\u2014Mike’s Unicorn in Bulls Head, Mike’s Olympic Diner in Port Richmond and Mike’s Place in Great Kills. (Advance\/SILive.com | Pamela Silvestri)<\/p>\n

But proximity wasn\u2019t the only issue. As for the Dakota Diner that just closed, Mike explained a longer arc of ownership and operation. \u201cFirst I bought the building. Then I ran it for a while. I was supposed to close it, but the people wanted me to stay. Things changed about two or three years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change, he said, was access with traffic patterns. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t get into the diner. You had to come around from the other end of Richmond Avenue to the parking lot. The lot was too small. People didn\u2019t want to cross the street, even though I rented out the lot across the way.\u201d He shook his head at the geometry of it all and added, \u201cFor me, it\u2019s better to close and rent it.\u201d <\/p>\n

And the late\u2011night crowd isn\u2019t what it used to be, Moudatsos observed\u2014especially after COVID. Still, Mike\u2019s Unicorn and Olympic diners remain open 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike\u2019s diners have a distinct personality, and their architecture tells the story: stainless\u2011steel lines, chrome trim catching the light, and wide plate\u2011glass windows that frame the interior like a stage. (Advance\/SILive.com | Pamela Silvestri)The look and spirit of the restaurants<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s diners have a distinct personality\u2014and their architecture tells the story. Diners generally owe their look to early 20th-century railroad dining cars: long, narrow silhouettes with gleaming stainless steel exteriors. Chrome trim catches the light, and large plate\u2011glass windows frame the interior like a stage. At the Olympic, the mirrored glass reflects a Forest Avenue that buzzes like a highway.<\/p>\n

At Mike\u2019s Olympic Diner, the name nods to Greece, but the design embraces classic diner charm with Mike\u2019s proud flair. During the midday rush, sunlight streams through wide front windows, spotlighting the kitsch. Pink\u2011and\u2011black tiles stripe the floor as Port Richmond hums outside\u2014Renato\u2019s Bakery and a laundry across the street. Inside, taupe walls with marble\u2011like swirls frame brown\u2011cushioned booths, their star\u2011and\u2011moon motifs adding retro whimsy. Pendant lamps bounce light off mirrors, creating a kaleidoscope effect. Seating is everywhere, inviting anyone to grab a booth or perch on a chrome stool. Some nooks are made for powwows; others maybe for a lone diner enjoying eggs and a little solitude.<\/p>\n

\"RichmondThe specials on a typical Tuesday. (Advance\/SILive.com | Pamela Silvestri)<\/p>\n

The hand\u2011written daily specials run around $18.95\u2014comfort food with a Staten Island accent. Today\u2019s lineup ranges from a grilled cheese stacked with bacon and tomato to chicken Parm over spaghetti. And yes, there\u2019s meatloaf, legendary among long\u2011time North Shore Staten Islanders.<\/p>\n

Visually, the diner stands out on an otherwise bleak stretch of Forest Avenue near expressway. Brown stacked stone climbs the fa\u00e7ade like stylized columns, and panels of reflective green glass shimmer like sea glass. The roofline sweeps into a neat curve, capped with bold Greek flourishes\u2014because this is the Olympic, after all, once immortalized in a cameo in Rodney Dangerfield\u2019s Easy Money. It is unmistakably Mike\u2019s.<\/p>\n

For those in the know of the film, Dangerfield strolls past what was then the Center Diner, its sign bragging \u201cOpen 23 Hours.\u201d Today it runs for 18 hours. (Mike is toying with going full 24.) But the cameo endures.<\/p>\n

\"RichmondThis is what the Unicorn looks like inside with its warm glow and colorful touches. Moudatsos believes in good food quality, cleanliness and friendly service as a formula in all his restaurants. (Advance\/SILive.com | Pamela Silvestri)\u2018I love to work\u2019<\/p>\n

Moudatsos, who is from Athens, Greece, has built a Staten Island reputation on an extraordinary work schedule that borders on myth. <\/p>\n

\u201cI work 20 hours a day, sometimes 22\u2014seven days a week. My last day off was nine years ago, after my mom died in Greece,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, I love to work. I try to do the best thing for the people. I have good quality food, a clean place, and good service. Good food is at the heart of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hard\u2011core work ethic has carried him through more than five decades in the restaurant realm. In 1972, he worked at the Park Diner in New Dorp, eventually becoming manager at the latter. It is now Cantina Mexicana at 140 New Dorp Lane, a restaurant Moudatsos says he holds in high regard. He also logged countless hours at the former Go-Go Souvlaki King, Victory Diner and National Terrace before opening his first place on New Dorp Lane in 1974.<\/p>\n

In the mid-1970s, Moudatsos bought and operated Ann\u2019s Coffee Shop on New Dorp Lane for five to six years\u2014the spot that later became Mike\u2019s Diner. He went on to run the Bayonne Diner in New Jersey for about five years starting around 1980, and he also operated Mike & Nicky\u2019s in Great Kills. Among other restaurants, he has owned the Hylan Boulevard diner\u2014formerly Russo\u2019s\u2014since 1993. He sold the New Dorp Mike\u2019s Diner in 2017; later that year, a fire broke out under the new owners. Mike Sr. repaired the damage, but the building remains unoccupied, its future undecided. Today, his son Mike Jr. steers the popular Oakwood and Richmond diners, extending the family brand into the next generation.<\/p>\n

And Mike? As he moves from table to booth to counter at the Olympic, he chats with Alma, the hostess at the reception station. She came from the Dakota and greets regulars one by one. Mike will be back here tomorrow morning for sure\u2014or maybe later today. He\u2019ll definitely head to Great Kills and then maybe the Unicorn. He\u2019ll do it again and again, because this is what he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to work,\u201d he had said earlier, quietly. \u201cGood food is at the heart of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dakota is dark\u2014but Mike\u2019s lights around the Island still glow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 On a recent morning, as the breakfast crowd melted into the lunch rush, Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-103961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}