From Lil's Diner to Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar

In 1941, Lil's Diner was built at 893 Broadway in Albany, New York. The building is a Silk City Diner model manufactured by the Paterson Vehicle Company. It features an interior of cherry wood and porcelain enamelled steel with a geometrically tiled floor. The structure is one of the few pre-World War II diners in the United States in near-original condition.

The diner was used as a set for the 1987 film Ironweed, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Following the filming, the building was bought by Cliff Brown and his wife Jane in 1988. Under Brown's initiative, the building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and won a Preservation Merit Award in 2002. During this period, it was known as the Miss Albany Diner and served signature dishes like Mad Irish Toast.

In February 2012, the diner was purchased by Matthew Baumgartner. While the structure was to be retained as part of site development, the Miss Albany Diner served its last meal as a diner on February 10, 2012. In 2015, the building re-opened as Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar under owner David Zheng. The new space features booths seating about 45 for lunch and dinner, with half of the original counter remaining at its original height.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons