Cherry Hill may lose a diner and gain another car wash as regulars worry local flavor is fading fast

For now, customers can still get snapper soup with sherry on the side at the Cherry Hill Diner, a place where servers call you “hon” if they don’t know your name.

The possibility that the Route 38 landmark will be replaced by a car wash isn’t going over well in a town where some residents are cheering the recent demise of a controversial proposal for a new Wawa.

One Cherry Hill United member posted on the group’s Facebook page: “How many ... car washes do we need?” The township has at least seven, including one perhaps 200 feet from the diner.

Dimitrios “Jimmy” Manetas, 67, who has owned the Cherry Hill Diner for 20 years, confirmed in a brief telephone interview that he and two partners intend to sell the business.

Sometimes called the Diner King of New Jersey, Manetas emigrated from Greece in 1961, got his start as a kitchen worker, and eventually became the owner of the fabled Trenton-area institution called Mastoris, which he sold in 2018. Mastoris closed last year. Manetas owns other diners elsewhere in the state.

New Jersey is widely credited with pioneering the diner format early in the 20th century. The state once was home to a half-dozen manufacturers that built and sold prefabricated, railroad car-inspired diners across the country. And New Jersey pretty much perfected the sprawling, neon-bedecked, breakfast-anytime eating places that still offer comfort food along the state’s highways.

But the diner business faces challenges from new “breakfast cafe” competitors, staffing shortages, and the skyrocketing cost of menu staples, like eggs. Although diners such as Olga’s in Marlton have emerged from oblivion with new incarnations, and the Diamond Diner on Route 70 in Cherry Hill was moved to Route 38 in Hainesport, parts of the outdated list at njdiners.com read like a roll call of the dead.

» READ MORE: Hey, Jersey. Olga’s Diner is back. | Let’s Eat

“New Jersey is the diner state, and we’re losing the good ones,” said Lisa Soley, a Cherry Hill resident, West Philly native, and longtime diner fan. “I’m not a food snob. But there’s a difference between franchise food and mom-and-pop food.”

John Smarkola lives within walking distance and has patronized the Cherry Hill Diner since the early 1970s, when it was known as the Windsor. “We need another car wash like we need another Wawa,” he said.

In an application filed with the township in October, PJ Land Development LLC of Farmingdale, N.Y., is asking to demolish the diner and construct a 3,620-square-foot car wash on the property. While the site is zoned for commercial uses, including car washes, the applicant is seeking at least six variances and 11 design waivers.

A Cherry Hill Planning Board hearing is scheduled to be conducted remotely at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“The bulk variances requested include one for nine additional parking spaces above the 20 that are permitted,” said Cosmas Diamantis, Cherry Hill’s director of community development. “Most of the design waivers are technical and have to do with landscaping, lighting, and off-street loading and parking.”

The original Windsor Diner was built during the township’s development boom of the 1960s, when the Cherry Hill Mall, Latin Casino, and stylish hotels like the Cherry Hill Inn helped transform a township once synonymous with farming into a leisure destination.

With their bright lights, big portions, and elaborate displays of desserts baked on the premises, diners along the highways of the township and the state became synonymous with New Jersey’s driving culture.

But in recent decades once-popular diners including the Country Club in Voorhees and the Penn Queen in Pennsauken have closed, often to make way for drugstore chains, convenience stores, and urgent care centers. Even in Center City Philadelphia, where 24-hour diners once were fixtures, many have called it quits.

» READ MORE: Midtown III, one of Center City Philadelphia’s last diners, has closed

In New Jersey, diners “are still a very vibrant industry. The diners with good operators are doing very well,” said Robert “Diner Bob” Gillis, a licensed agent with Bielat Santore & Co., a restaurant real estate firm.

“Others are selling because generally, diners have good locations, an acre or more of land, and are great development sites,” said Gillis, who writes about diners for food and beverage industry publications such as Estiator.

He also noted that shorter hours of operation are becoming more common due to a decline in the once lively early-morning trade represented by young clubgoers and other revelers.

And family-owned diners are finding it difficult to interest younger generations in the often-grueling demands of the business, Gillis said.

Smarkola and Soley are sorry to see a traditional diner disappear.

“I feel like we’re seeing the end of an era,” said Soley.

“Cherry Hill is losing its heritage,” said Smarkola.

The losses are compounded for Cherry Hill Diner employees like Diane Becker and Lindsay Altitonante.

“I’m going to miss my customers — and my job,” said Becker, 60, of Maple Shade, who’s served food at the diner for 14 years. “The thought of starting over at another place isn’t making me happy.”

Said Altitonante, a server there for the last four years: “The work just clicks with me. I have a lot of regulars that come to see me, and I like to see them leave happy and full.

“There are so many of us here who love what we do.”