Fans of the Art Cliff Diner will have to go without the crepes, French toast, eggs and home fries, fish tacos and other favorites this summer as the iconic Beach Road Vineyard Haven eatery undergoes a major renovation project.
“I definitely won’t be open this summer,” owner Gina Stanley told the Gazette by phone this week. “I don’t want to rush it — I want it right,” she said.
Work has been underway on the diner all winter. Ms. Stanley said the work includes a complete re-do of the kitchen from the counter back, a new foundation and new flooring in the original building. A dormered second-story addition in the rear of the building will house an office, storage space, an employee bathroom and other practical amenities.
The diner turns 80 next year. Ms Stanley bought it 22 years ago and has long been a familiar presence slinging hash in the cramped but immaculate, open kitchen. “I’ve done a bunch of work in the last four or five years, but I always knew the kitchen was the next thing,” Ms. Stanley said. After years of hauling linens to her home at night for washing and having no office space, she said the changes will bring needed improvements to her work life.
“My car was my office mostly,” she said.
Chuck Sullivan is the architect for the project; the contractor is Fielding and Sons. Construction has seen a spate of delays, first with permitting, then with the supply chain disruptions that have affected countless building projects this year.
Supply chain issues have contributed to a spate of delays in the project.
— Ray Ewing
“Things just trickle in,” Ms. Stanley said. “Half the siding arrives, then it stops again.”
She said there will be some new fixtures, but the configuration of the diner will stay mostly the same. “I might have some booths,” she said. “I wanted to keep the old vibe . . . I want to have a more authentic 40s vibe because it [the diner] started in ‘43 . . . I want to try to make it all work together.”
Ms. Stanley has kept the doors open throughout the pandemic, and at the height of lockdown in March 2020 was offering pay-what-you-can takeaway meals for Islanders.
For this summer, she said the diner and its companion food truck will stay idle, while construction work continues. Meanwhile, the intrepid Ms. Stanley has taken a summer job as a chef at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club, and will do some catering on the side, in addition to caring for her elderly father at her home.
“I took a job because I didn’t want to stop because of money,” she said.
