One regular's grandmother worked at The Diamond for 31 years. Her picture is still on the wall, along with her sisters'.
That's how this Charlotte diner works. Flonnie and W.A. James opened it in 1945 as the Diamond Soda Grill, and it stayed in the family when their twin sons took over. Jerry Pistolis bought it in 1982 and kept it going. By 2010 the inside had fallen into disrepair, and a group of friends, some of them from the Penguin, bought it and restored it, neon sign and all. John Fuller and his wife are the last of them still running it, and the old photos on the walls are part of how they brought it back.
The menu is diner food made the way it was meant to be: all-beef, hand-formed burgers, homemade chips, fried pickles, and a hot dog one reviewer calls epic. The veggie burger earns its own fans, who add mayo-slaw. There's a full bar with ice-cold beer, a jukebox where you might catch Ozzy, and live shows on the patio.
It's one of Charlotte's classic diners. Not a "retro theme," just a diner that's been here since 1945.
A Charlotte tradition since 1945. Come see the pictures.
