‘A Fascination For Diners’ New Owner Revises Menu Choices At The Triangle By: Val Van Meter The Winchester Star When Jeff Roman, “Chef Jeff,” unlocked the door of the Triangle Diner at 5:15 one morning, he put in the wrong code for the alarm system. When the alarm company called to check, “they didn’t recognize me,” said the former chef at the Lone Oak Restaurant, who took over the Triangle Diner Sept. 15. Jeff Roman is the new owner and chef at the Triangle Diner in Winchester. The New Jersey native got his start in his trade at his father’s restaurant when he had to stand on a stool to reach the counter. (Photo by Scott Mason) “So they sent the police anyway. I was happy to see the response time. They were here in about four minutes.” Roman has a few such stories, as he works to give the 57-year-old business new management and, maybe a new look. Or, should that be a return to an old look? “I grew up in diners,” said the New Jersey native, who got his start in his trade in his father’s restaurant when he had to stand on a stool to reach the counter. “I’ve always had a fascination for diners.” Roman has a cartoon from The Washington Post taped to the window behind the cash register in the Winchester establishment. The Triangle Diner forms the background, as the characters deplored the fact that its original steel skin is hidden under a facade of wood. Roman said he’s been told the original diner sat on the western edge of the lot, but was moved and placed on a basement at some point in time. An extension was built onto the back to move the kitchen out of the diner itself and the wood siding and roof put on. “Maybe they wanted to tie it all together,” Roman speculated. The new chef, however, would love to take all that wood off and let the Triangle sparkle in its steel and chrome beauty again. At the Triangle, sandwiched in by Braddock and Gerrard streets, and Valley Avenue, it’s easy to slip into thoughts of the past. Take the Patsy Cline posters. They are a tribute to the country singing star who worked at the Triangle briefly. “She was 16 or 17,” said customer Denny Barr, a regular at the Triangle for many years. The story goes, said Kim Yancey, a waitress at the diner for about three years, that Cline was provoked by a customer, slapped his face, and walked out. “She went down to Gaunt’s (drugstore) and got a job,” Barr added. Roman plans to encourage the nostalgia the diner invokes, by keeping the small table-top versions of the old juke box, with songs from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, so customers play their favorites. And of course, Patsy’s classics are part of the choices. The new menus, designed by his wife, feature a photo of the diner as it looked in its earlier incarnation, and a 1950s era Buick. The dishes on the menu, however, are Roman’s own take on diner fare. Special burgers and deli sandwiches recall the era, but Roman is tempering baskets of fish and chips or chicken tenders with batter-dipped veggies. The interior of the Triangle Diner will maintain its vintage look as new owner Jeff Roman wants to preserve the atmosphere of the 1950s eatery. Menu choices are traditional diner offerings with a few special additions Roman is implementing. (Photo by Scott Mason) He plans to offer bakery items, donuts and muffins for the breakfast crowd, along with pies. There is homemade soup and homemade chili, too. “I wanted to enter the chili challenge (an area fund-raiser),” Roman noted, but getting the Triangle up and running after the management transition, has taken all his time. “That trophy would look nice up there,” he said, gesturing to the cash register. “Next year, right?” Roman is also opening the diner for dinner, again. Some of the entrees he is offering were taste-tested in the Valley during his stint as chef at the Lone Oak. “We’re offering three sides with every entree,” Roman noted and none are priced over $10. Owning his own place is a little different than working for someone else, Roman agreed. “I just decided it was time to do it for myself,” he explained. And, it does give him more time with his family, since his wife and daughters are providing some of the wait staff on weekends. Luckily, the Berryville resident doesn’t have a lengthy commute to his new workplace, since Roman puts in long hours, and the headaches of the business are all his. Take a recent evening when a stray squirrel came to grief on a transformer nearby, blacking out the section of the city around the diner. “What do you do?” Roman asked, when the electricity disappears. What Roman did was clean his kitchen, with Yancey spotlighting the work with a flashlight, as the diners who had gotten their food before the lights went out, dined romantically by candle light. The Triangle Diner is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Originally Published In The Winchester Star On October 12, 2005







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