The Old Diner

Marty CohenDaily Photo11 Comments

The Old Diner

The Old Diner

(Click on photo to enlarge. Click on the comment number bubble to leave a comment.)

This is Mullen’s Dining Car Restaurant, a streetcar diner built in 1945. It’s near Buellton, CA, north of Santa Barbara, just off of Highway 101. It was open for only 13 years and now is at risk of being destroyed. It used to sit on land zoned for commercial use, but the land has been rezoned for residential use. (Be sure to click on the photo above to enlarge it.)

If you’d like to read more about this great diner and see several old photos, I highly recommend this article. Be sure to go through pages 1 and 2 of their web page. You can also read about the diner’s possible fate in this additional article.

This image is an HDR composite of 5 different exposures processed with Photomatix Pro. They were taken with a Canon EOS 40D, EF17-40mm f/4L lens, on SanDisk Extreme IV Digital Film.

11 Comments on “The Old Diner”

  1. Great subject! I like the color version because the details really stand out and it is clearer how the building was constructed using the railroad cars. The black and white is nice too, but I think I’d prefer seeing a detail or closeup of part of the architecture rather than the whole building.

  2. I do like the color one better. I wonder how it would look if it was black and white except for the building.

  3. The color version accentuates the age of the structure and softens the overall appearance of the building. There is a true feeling of nostalgia in the photo.

  4. I’m glad you found it and so glad you got to photograph it before it may be demolished. It would be a shame to lose this little slice of CA history, so I hope it can be saved. Love this dining car cafe, can’t you almost smell the greasy fries???

  5. I love this photo!

    BTW: I noticed that if I place my cursor over the photo it becomes much lighter than it should be. Technical glitch?

    1. Thank Susan. It’s not a technical glitch, it’s just what it does to show that it’s also clickable. And, clicking on it enlarges it, which I like as the best way to view it.

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