Silver Diner Running 'Pancake Express' To New Arlington Location

ARLINGTON, VA — Silver Diner will be running a shuttle from its old location in Clarendon to its new location in Ballston through the rest of 2022.

After 26 years in Clarendon, Silver Diner said it wanted to do something special for customers who may wander to the old location. The restaurant hired a shuttle to run every half hour from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays until Saturday, Dec. 31.

“Sometimes old habits die hard,” Silver Diner President and CEO Bob Giaimo said in a statement. “We jokingly call this the pancake express.”

The luxury shuttle bus will pick up people at the Clarendon location at 3200 Wilson Blvd., which includes a large, free, open-air parking lot, and take them 1.4 miles to the new location at 4400 Wilson Blvd.

Unlike the stand-alone Silver Diner in Clarendon, the new location is part of a mixed-use development that has an underground parking garage with two hours of free validated parking.

The new restaurant also comes with 244 seats — 191 indoor and 68 outdoor — and a full bar.

The staff from the Clarendon location have all moved to the Ballston location, including Hugo Alonzo, who has been with Silver Diner for 26 years and is one of the restaurant’s most requested servers, and “Mama D,” who has been waiting on customers for 23 years at Silver Diner in Arlington. The two employees cut the ribbon on Wednesday at the Ballston location opening.

Silver Diner also is holding a raffle and auctioning memorabilia from the old Silver Diner restaurant in Clarendon. The winner of the raffle will receive free Silver Diner for a Year: a gift card with a value of $1,040.

The deadline to enter the Silver Diner raffle and bid on the auction items is Dec. 22 at 11:59 p.m. For the raffle, a winner will be randomly selected and notified on Dec. 23 by noon.

The featured auction items include a Silver Diner Tabletop Jukebox, a Backlit "Bakery on Premises" Neon Sign and an SD Logo Panel Sign.

The new Silver Diner in Ballston is open from 7 a.m. daily until midnight from Sunday through Wednesday, the restaurant closes at 1 a.m. on Thursday and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

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