The company says its biggest growth prospects in the future are its Airport and Metro lines. Its first airport establishment opened in 2007 in Baltimore.

After about 20 years of specializing as an authentic American classic diner, Silver Diner debuted its Metro line last year in Fairfax, Va., which is a cross between a fast-casual and sit-down establishment that features menu items preferred by urban youth. This includes California omelets, organic green salad, salmon, Angus beef and turkey meatloaf, President and CEO Bob Giaimo says. “It is a diner that is really addressing a healthier lifestyle and customers that are urban and younger,” he says. “It will be more for the on-the-go lifestyle.”

The Metro establishments will provide table service and on-the-go items and have electronic menu ordering, kiosk and online ordering, as well as Wi-Fi. They will be smaller than the classic line – between 4,000 to 5,000 square feet – and will be located in mixed-use developments, town centers and strip malls. It opened its second location in Annapolis, Md., in April.

The Metro line is expected to achieve a large amount of growth, he notes. “It’s a younger, hipper, next-generation diner,” he says. “It will have the good quality of restaurants with the prices of fast-casual establishments. It’s the best of both worlds.”

New Concepts
Silver Diner has three restaurant concepts: the Metro diner, Airport dining and classic restaurants. The company has 16 classic locations in the Mid-Atlantic, from New Jersey to Virginia Beach, Giaimo says. The restaurants range from 5,000 to 6,000 square feet.

Along with the typical classic diner menu items, such as meatloaf, turkey and pot pie, Silver Diner also offers contemporary dishes along with classic American cuisine. Its broad menu offerings include Cajun chicken pasta, grilled salmon, baby burgers or sliders, and caramel French toast. The restaurants are also known for classic dishes like chicken pot pie, meatloaf, turkey, hand-dipped milkshakes and ice cream sundaes, Giaimo says.

The restaurant also has a heart-healthy menu that includes items such as hummus, skewered chicken and carb-free pancakes. The company uses trans-fat-free cooking oil, has low-carb alternatives, lists nutritional information for all its items on the menu and offers smaller portions.

“People want to chose,” he states. “They want to be in charge. We have seen that people have more assertive flavor profiles.”

The company’s greatest growth potential lies in its Airport dining and Metro locations, Giaimo stresses. It currently has one Silver Dining airport establishment at BWI Airport in Baltimore, Md. It opened in the end of 2007, and has earned $5 million in revenues  last year. It is the highest volume restaurant in that airport and one of the highest volumes of its type in the country.

“We reinvented airport dining,” he states. “What makes Silver Diner unique is its combination of a sit-down restaurant with a broad range of menu items – from all-day breakfast to porterhouse steak and full-service art deco bar, and a full scale carry-out operation.”

The all-day breakfast menu features items such as omelets, caramel French toast, eggs and other upscale brunch items. “The traveling public loves it,” Giaimo says.
Customers can watch T.V. in the restaurant bar, as well as keep track of their flight via a monitor and order from its snack menu. “It’s unusual for a place that has a good family atmosphere to also have a successful bar,” he notes. The success of the airport division spurred the start of the Metro locations, he adds.

The Diner’s Beginnings
Giaimo and his partner, Ype Von Hengst, opened Silver Diner in 1989. However, before opening its first location, Giaimo and Hengst took a $500,000, 18-month journey and visited approximately 500 diners in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta and Chicago, as well as cities in California, to determine what made them successful, and adapted those concepts into Silver Diner. “First, we saw that diners are an American architectural icon,” Giaimo says.           

“When you look at the building on the outside, you have a good understanding of what’s on the inside.” For example, most diners were constructed with glass blocks and timeless materials such as stainless steel, neon colors, and the interiors of the restaurants had cozy booths as well as low-ceiling counters. 

Diners were also adaptable to a broad demographic, whether its people getting a bite after work or coming after a show, he adds. “I think that it is the sense of coziness and warmth that is [instrumental] to diners,” he says.

The associates who work there are the main reason for a diner’s success. “The waitress is usually an authentic person, not the yuppie-fied type you see in a casual-themed restaurant,” he describes. “These are real people who have a contagious friendliness and relationships with the guests.”
For example, the wait staff knows the names of its regular customers, checks up on them when they don’t come in and even visits them in the hospital. “It’s a home away from home,” he states.   

Giaimo’s vision for the future is that the Silver Diner classic concept will continue to be successful in its current markets. “These are the highest average unit volume family restaurants in the country,” he says. Family restaurants usually earn $1.5 million in yearly revenues at best, but Silver Diner averages between $3.5 million and $5 million in revenues yearly, he says.