My current project
 

Long story short, we tried to buy a little diner here in our small rural town years ago, but deal fell apart. We ended up buying it last fall, and have been working on it in our spare time. Things are coming together, and should be open in April, fingers crossed.
Decided to do a kinda automotive theme mainly. Entryway will be dedicated to military and local police/fire department and EMS.
Figured I’d post a few picks, and Pontiacs will be well represented. Our logo is “my” ‘55 Catalina. I say “my” as when we actually designed the logo we didn’t have a usable picture of my car, which is sitting in an upholstery shop 2 hours away!
I’ll probably be posting updated pics as we get the place in running order, as right now I’m sitting in a sea of tools from all the work we’re doing here!

Working on more pics

Very nice. Wish you were opening your cafe in my town. Good luck.

Sweet and Best of Luck with it;)

Oh! It’s going to be a pizza joint mainly. Got some more overall pics before the mess hit.

Very cool!

Some of the best eating ever is found at smaller diners/restaurants. If I ever find myself in the state of WI, I'll definitely stop in

I had no idea Muscoda was the morel capt of Wisconsin. What is the name of the new pizza place?

^^^^THIS!


Congrats!

how exciting - I always dreamed of owning my own old school drive in diner or even a chicken shack

Classics Pizza. It’s actually in the next town over, Avoca Wisconsin. In the summer there is a cruise in every other week, right where the diner will be. So it will fit right in. Rarely gets less than 120 cars, unless it’s raining, and close to 200 on a good night.
I wish I could get better pics, but had to keep tools and equipment out of the shots. Maybe update the thread when it’s done.

Well, behind schedule, as most things go.
Life gets in the way sometimes, as I was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few months after buying this place. Surgery and recovery went well, so I’ve been back on my feet for the last week, and hit the ground running.
We plan on doing an initial opening next Wednesday, the day of the first village cruise-in of the year. Just have a couple more loose ends to tie up, but nothing that would prevent us from opening.
Had a Sicilian friend of the family and his wife, who has run multiple restaurants around Milwaukee, come today to tweak a couple recipes (I’m Scott’s/Irish and don’t cook!) My son Matt, in the black shirt and hat, is managing the place. He’s kicking azz for an 18 year old, and everyone who we deal with can’t believe how knowledgeable and organized the kid is for his age. ( I always say I raised them all to be independent!)
Can’t wait to get the ball rolling here, and get the ‘55 Catalina back from the upholstery shop, so I can park it out front, especially on cruise nights!
Don’t know if I mentioned this earlier, but my 14 year old, Colin designed our logo. I didn’t ask him to do this, he just came upstairs with his laptop one night and showed me the logo, using a green/white ‘55 off the internet. I accepted it as is, and now on our sign, hats, ect.

Very cool looking place, maybe Dave from One Bite Pizza review will stop in someday to review it.
Nice glad to hear you are recovering ;)

More God throwing me curve balls. Not going too deep into it, but I got sepsis and it hit me Tuesday morning hard-fever of 103.6, fatigued, and felt like crap all around, my wife drove me to Madison to my hospital, where I was admitted. Anyway the diner opened Wednesday! lol, so I wasn’t even at the diner on our opening day. Getting out today after 3 days of IV antibiotics, followed by another week of pill versions at home.
Anyway, the village car show, which the diner helps sponsor, officially had about 95 cars.
Most importantly, Pontiac again was MTTF, as our first delivery ever was done by my son, in his ‘71 GTO! :)
I just posted on Facebook that I believe we have the fastest old school delivery vehicle in Wisconsin, and I have years of timeslips from Great Lakes Dragaway to back it up. We’ll gladly accept a challenge. :)
My son told me he left with the delivery ( the car show literally takes place in the blocks around our diner) and he kept getting stopped by people in the street, which is blocked off to regular traffic, by people wanting to gab about the GTO. He said a couple times “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m on a delivery” lol
Pic of GTO outside of my unfinished diner yesterday. Doc said to take it easy today, so plan for tomorrow is to get my gas pump mounted just to the left of the front door.

Sepsis is no joke. I’m glad you’re on the path to recovery. Many people die from that. Best wishes.

Thanks. I never want to have it again, it was worse than any cancer I had. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I had no idea you could have a fever like that either, I kinda thought my thermometer was just acting up, it wasn’t.

Even though you missed the opening, CONGRATS on the new venture!

Little victories. Got the gas pump mounted outside. Been sitting inside for the last 6 months, and our ATM (we’re cash only!) is getting installed next week right where I had the pump sitting.
My son Matt, who is managing the diner, graduated HS last night, so I had my muscle head sons in one place at the same time. I asked if they could please install this today so the old man can take it easy. Dr.’s orders!
Oh, my wife ordered the sign. I think it needs to be at least 2-3x the current size. It’s lit up at night, but comically small. Another little project. :)