Roanoke health officials closed the downtown restaurant Feb. 12 and began efforts to revoke its food permit on March 12. Roaches in sandwiches, moldy vegetables, ants, mice and gnats have been cited in health department reports. The restaurant could re-open if it passes another inspection, but the March 12 action is still scheduled. The Diner received tons of publicity over the years for things unrelated to food. Things like the earring-wearing Big Boy on the roof that brought a lawsuit for trademark infringement and defamation, and the pointless legal fight to keep the debt clock that stood on the building when Macher bought it.
Publicity can be good for business, or it can be bad.
Macher said he took responsibility for the restaurant's sanitation problems, though he also blamed a manager whom he fired. Putting just a little of the energy from the fight to keep the debt clock into basic restaurant practices might have helped him avoid this unhappy crossroads. Joe Kennedy Joe Kennedy's column appears online weekly, more or less, each Tuesday.