Lost in the '50s: New Strasburg diner offers taste of nostalgia

By Josette Keelor -- Daily Staff Writer

STRASBURG -- Walking through the front door of Strasburg's newest eatery, Big & Lil D's Diner, is like stepping back in time, though you would not know it from the modern, uniform brick facade of the building on Queen Street Square. Upon entering, customers are greeted by a statue depicting a Betty Boop waitress on roller skates holding a serving tray.

Dave Huntington, left, holds a half-pound bacon cheeseburger platter, and Donna Walker holds a breakfast platter of fried eggs and hash browns. Huntington and Walker own Big & Lil D's Diner on East Queen Street in Strasburg. The new diner has a '50s theme and a varied menu for patrons. Rich Cooley/Daily A collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia lines a wall of the diner. Rich Cooley/Daily

The 1950s style restaurant, with its red booths, bar stools, black and white checkered floor, and plastic ketchup and mustard squirt bottles, looks old-fashioned, but it offers a unique and stylized menu.

Frequented mainly by local residents on their lunch break or out for dinner in the town, the diner, located at 728 E. Queen St., offers a wide variety of food options to suit many a palate.

"I just thought of it as [bringing] a piece of the past back," says co-owner Dave Huntington, who lived in Oklahoma as a child and remembers eating at '50s-style diners. A self-taught chef, Huntington formed his own menu for the diner only this summer after deciding he was going to open his own restaurant.

It's something he's always wanted to do, says Huntington, a sprinkler system installer with Winchester Sprinkler Co. who moved from Sterling last year and now lives in Capon Bridge, W.Va. He explains that his job brought him to many restaurants being built, and even allowed him to find out about the open space available on Queen Street, when he came to install a sprinkler system there.

Though he says the task before him -- to open a restaurant having no prior experience -- was not daunting, his partner felt differently.

"It was for me. It was huge for me, not knowing a thing," says Donna Walker, Huntington's girlfriend and co-owner of the diner. "I have never had a thing to do with a restaurant."

Originally from Oakton, Walker met Huntington when they were both living and working in Northern Virginia. In the market for a new job, Walker switched careers entirely, moving from her job in the financial industry to her current position running the front end of the diner.

Mostly, the owners intended to make a comfortable way of living and get to know local residents, Huntington says. "I've always just been pleased meeting people."

Meeting people is exactly what he's been doing since opening, because almost every day at lunchtime the diner is packed, with a long line of customers waiting to order. Dinner time is even busier, they say, especially on nights when Strasburg High School hosts sporting events.

"We've been very busy," he says.

Although the diner has been open for about six weeks, it had its grand opening only last week, the owners choosing to coordinate their opening with that of the other businesses in the building -- New Vision Counseling Services LLC and the United States Department of Agriculture.

"[I] hope the future continues the way the first month has been," Walker says.

"We've had a lot of complements on this place," Huntington says. He explains that one of the goals he and Walker had was "bringing a piece of the past back." As part of that goal, Walker decorated the diner with her own personal collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia.

"That was Donna's, and it was in our living room," Huntington says of the pictures, Coke cans and plates. The large buttons were in the garage, he says.

To match its theme, the diner serves '50s- and '60s-style food, Huntington says. Like any other diner, Big & Lil D's serves breakfast all day, offering eggs, sausage, gravy, pancakes and waffles among regional favorites like grits and scrapple.

Sandwiches, clubs and salads are served as part of the lunch and dinner menus, and a wide array of soups are rotated through the menu, with a different soup made each day.

The menu advertises Lil D's Birds and Big D's Burgs. "Lil D" Walker is a fan of chicken, and "Big D" Huntington wants to provide a hearty meal for big eaters. Desserts like pumpkin, banana cream and apple pies and cheesecake are available. The diner also offers a children's menu and allows alterations or substitutions to the meals.

"I would definitely say there's something here for everyone. That was the concept of the diner back then that they cater to the [customer]," Huntington says. If he can make it, he will make it, he says, including his favorite, the Fried Bologna Sandwich.

The hits at the diner are the foot long chili dog, "The Porky Dog" -- a hot dog filled with cheese and wrapped in bacon, the homemade New England clam chowder, homemade potato soup and homemade burgers. In fact, almost everything served at the diner is homemade by Huntington, including a recipe that has its own history in Strasburg -- "the special catsup," which had been featured at the Virginia Restaurant years ago.

Huntington wanted to use the recipe at the diner partly because of its history, but also because of its popularity.

"I guess it's a big deal here," says Huntington, who recently acquired a version of the recipe, but has not begun making it yet.

Everyone in town seems to have a copy of the recipe, Walker says, "but no one makes it." He hopes to find the most accurate recipe with the help of local residents and start producing the condiment at the diner.

If they're going to do it, they want to do it right, Huntington says.

Special catsup or not, "Big D" and "Lil D" just want people to come and enjoy themselves at the diner.

Fostering a community atmosphere is an important part of what Huntington and Walker want to bring to Big & Lil D's Diner.

"We actually get out and we talk with people. I think people like that ... it gives it that little personal touch," Huntington says.

It's almost like bringing back that sense of community we have forgotten, Walker says.

"I think the diner's coming back -- the family restaurant," says Huntington.

Big & Lil D's Diner is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

* Contact Josette Keelor at jkeelor@nvdaily.com