70-year-old Dayton diner keeps original atmosphere and patrons

DAYTON (AP) — Wympee’s manager Linda Anderson watches over the tiny diner on East Third Street every minute it’s open. That’s 88 hours a week serving office workers in suits alongside regulars in T-shirts and baseball caps. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s the customers — if it is wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here,” Anderson said. “I have people come in and tell me they haven’t been here for 30 or 40 years. Some of them tell me they met their husbands or wives in here.”

The landscape around Wympee’s — located in the shadow of downtown Dayton — has changed dramatically since the burger joint/coffee shop/diner opened in 1938. Auto-parts plants and factories have closed, a baseball stadium and condos have been built. But Wympee’s itself has remained frozen in time.

And that’s just fine with the regulars.

The building’s exterior also remains virtually unchanged since 1938.

“This is the same ceiling that was here in 1952. I know because I cleaned it several times,” said 72-year-old Howard Robbins. The suburban Harrison Township resident pointed over to the lunch counter that faces the street. “Same stools, too.”

Back then, Robbins was a 16-year-old kid working the diner’s second shift, serving waves of workers from a nearby auto-parts plant and taking home $33.14 for working 40 hours a week (Yes, he still has a pay stub.) He worked at Wympee’s for only five weeks, but something about the place stuck with him, “and I’ve been coming back here ever since.”

The diner has several regulars, some of whom occupy designated stools every afternoon. The camaraderie between them and Anderson is apparent. They finish each other’s sentences and trade gentle barbs. Birthdays are celebrated. And the coffee flows.

A yellowing newspaper clipping posted on a wall chronicles a visit from an Elvis impersonator. And Hank Snow has been here, Anderson says.

Years ago, someone — Anderson thinks it was “the third owner back” — tried to spiff up the place by placing cruets containing herb-infused olive oils in the old diner’s window sills. The cruets still are there, looking oddly out of place.

The menu briefly expanded to include burritos and other Mexican food a year or two ago, but the new menu didn’t stick, and the Mexican specialties were dropped. But Anderson says she makes a fine Giant Southwestern Omelet ($5.49), and she recently added an eight-inch Philly Beef & Cheese sandwich ($3.99). On Fridays, she makes fish.

Breakfast is served all day. Anderson notes with just a hint of derision that this isn’t a place you’ll find blueberry pancakes.

“We sell eggs, meat and potatoes, mostly — and plenty of biscuits and gravy,” she says.

The restaurant celebrated its 70th anniversary Saturday, with some rollback prices on hamburgers and beverages and a cruise-in for car and motorcycle owners. The burgers that sell for $2.39 cost 70 cents from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.