In 1987, John Touhey noticed a sign at the entrance of the Cutchogue Diner (27850 Main Road, Cutchogue, 631-734-7016), one of his favorite local eateries.
“On the front door, on the back of a placemat, it said: ‘Get more out of life. Own a diner,’” says Touhey. “So, I’m sitting here, going, ‘This could be really great! I could do a lot with this place. This could be fun!’”
According to Touhey, then-owner Dave DeFriest was “practically giving it away.” Touhey decided to take the plunge and buy the old Kullman diner, in part due to his love of the historic digs in which it resides.
“It was pretty beat up and needed a lot of work,” he recalls, “and I thought it would be a nice project.”
Thirty-seven years later, Touhey sits in the modest but iconic building telling the diner’s story over a cup of freshly brewed coffee poured by Debbie Stelzer, a 19-year employee who Touhey affectionately refers to as Weekday Debbie so as not to confuse her with a weekend server with the same first name. He’s enjoying a slice of homemade apple pie made by chef and manager Fernando Rodriguez, who’s worked at the diner for a whopping 30 years.
Like Stelzer and Rodriguez, much of what’s found at the Cutchogue Diner is comfortingly familiar — the menu has barely changed in decades; the servers and kitchen help have largely stayed the same — and that’s exactly how Touhey likes it.
A PIECE OF THE PIE
The Cutchogue Diner originally opened as Glover’s restaurant in 1941. The building itself was made by Kullman Dining Car Company, a Newark, N.J.-based group that manufactured prefab diners from the 1920s to the 2000s. Over the years, Kullman transformed into the Kullman Building Corporation and, finally, Kullman Industries before shutting down in 2011 — but not before growing to build other types of buildings, including an embassy in Africa.
“Way back when we started, we built one diner a day,” Kullman president Robert Kullman told The New York Times in 1993. “In the late ‘40s, we were building 40 to 50 diners a year. Now we build maybe five a year. Right up until 1969 we just built diners.”
The diner’s history as a prefab building — one that had been going out of style in favor of larger diners — was one of the reasons Touhey, a real estate developer, was so enamored of the then-rundown restaurant.
“[Kullman] would deliver it on a flatbed truck,” Touhey says with a hint of awe. “They build a foundation and place it. Everything was included! I think the price was about $15,000. They would drop it off and you were in business.”
He also held a personal affection for it, having brought his kids, Evan and Colin, there on Saturdays for breakfast back in the ’80s.
When the opportunity presented itself, Touhey’s fascination for the spot was officially tapped. “My wife thought I was nuts [buying it].”
Photos by David Benthal
Admittedly, the Cutchogue resident, who spends half his time in Brooklyn, didn’t know anything about the restaurant business. After convincing his wife, Patty Lowry, it would be a worthwhile project, and a lot of learning curves, Touhey got down to business cleaning up the rough edges while being mindful of holding firmly to its 1940s charm.
Touhey renovated the building but retained its recognizable look. The diner — which resembles an old train car on the outside — is filled with red seating and stools, is complemented by natural light flowing in through the windows that line the front, and offers views of Cutchogue’s quintessential East End main drag.
“I fixed it up,” says Touhey. “The whole kitchen needed replacing, it wasn’t air conditioned, I fixed up the lighting.”
Touhey kept many details intact, including the floor and stools. He replaced most of the staff, who were used to a different type of management, but found that the employees he retained and added stayed for a long, long time.
NOTHING FANCY
Much of the menu, as customers know it today, was developed during this transitional time. It’s not huge — there aren’t a multitude of pages to flip through — but it’s consistent, classic and crowd-pleasing.
Today, the Cutchogue Diner’s roster of dishes includes breakfast mainstays like eggs, toast, pancakes and French toast; lunch items like meatloaf, burgers, hot and cold sandwiches (the Reuben is a particular favorite), and the popular curly fries; and homemade pies baked by Rodriguez. If you ask for a vanilla or chocolate egg cream, you won’t be stared at as though you just spoke a new language: you’ll get the frothy soda-fountain treat in short order.
“It’s nothing fancy here,” insists Touhey. “We don’t have almond milk, we don’t have soy milk. But people like the consistency!”
Despite Touhey’s insistence that it’s not a fancy restaurant — and make no mistake, it’s a classic diner through and through — the Cutchogue Diner is filled with custom touches. You’d be hard-pressed to find a high-volume diner with homemade desserts, for instance. The menu and accompanying logo were handwritten by Lowry. The coffee cups are also adorned with the logo and made specifically for the diner by a company in East Palestine, Ohio.
The Cutchogue Diner serves local wine, too. In the 1980s, when the North Fork’s wine region was still developing, Touhey began selling wine by the glass from Hargrave Winery, the region’s first commercial vineyard.
“I knew the Hargraves,” says Touhey. “I wanted to promote them and their wine. The idea of a local wine was kind of nuts! It was a real novelty item [at the time]. And now that’s all there is! Potatoes are a novelty now.” He continues to support local wine and sells it by the glass.
The diner also sources locally when possible, including fish from nearby Braun Seafood Co. and fresh vegetables from stands including Bayview Market & Farms in Aquebogue.
FROM DISHWASHER TO CHEF
A huge part of the menu’s consistency and local sourcing is down to Rodriguez, who has worked at the diner in various capacities since he was a teenager in 1994.
“He runs the place,” says Touhey. “He is really the managing partner, day in and day out. I do the big picture — pay the taxes, renovations — but Fernando does the day-to-day. [Debbie] says she works for me, but she doesn’t. She works for Fernando.”
Rodriguez moved to Greenport from Guatemala when he was 18. At the time, he barely spoke English and couldn’t enroll in high school in Greenport due to his July birthday, so he attended BOCES to finish his education. He started working at the diner as a dishwasher.
“For me, coming in here [as a dishwasher], it was a piece of cake! I started to make dollars, and those dollars multiplied,” Rodriguez says.
But he also saw something else in the job so he stuck around, learning the kitchen and hospitality business and moving up through the ranks until he became the diner’s chef and manager.
“I don’t feel like I am coming into work,” says Rodriguez. “I feel like I’m coming into a place where I’m going to do what I love to do and do my best as possible. And since we are all like a family, we all look forward to seeing each other every day.”
He likes to keep the menu consistent — after all, that’s diner credo — but he doesn’t like to follow recipes too strictly.
“I feel that it has to taste good for customers to like it,” Rodriguez says. “I say to [my staff], do things how you would like to be served. How would you serve this? That consistency is very important.”
Rodriguez has developed some of the most popular menu items, including specials like the seafood bisque, corn chowder and chili. Regular customers know and trust Rodriguez with their favorite dishes. Often, someone will walk in and he’ll immediately remember their order.
Working at the Cutchogue Diner all these years has helped Rodriguez fulfill his dreams. Growing up in the countryside, he longed for a Toyota truck, something popular in his community. Rodriguez bought that car, and eventually his own house in Riverhead. He also loves to travel and has been to Greece, Paris and Rome.
Fernando Rodriguez runs the kitchen and makes all the pies on the menu. Photos by David Benthal
“For me, a country boy coming from where I came from… I got to go to the Vatican!” he exclaims.
Rodriguez brought his own kin into the Cutchogue Diner family fold, too, with cousins now employed in the old Kullman property.
“There is an endless supply of people that Fernando knows,” says Touhey. “Whenever we need somebody, he goes, ‘I have a cousin.’ And they can do anything!”
The Cutchogue Diner is open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and while Touhey has toyed with the idea of dinner service and evening pop-ups, he’s opted to stick with what works.
Between pouring cups of coffee and serving up pie to eager regulars, Stelzer muses on what makes the diner special.
“It’s wonderful working here,” she says. “It’s very homey; we have our regular customers, all wonderful people.”
Adds Touhey, “It’s like ‘Cheers.’ Everybody knows your name.”
