Feeling vintage in Frank's Diner, Kenosha

When Wayne and I headed off for our day date in Fort Atkinson recently we saw a vintage diner on a flat bed pulled off the highway near our home due to high winds.  I didn't give it much thought until about a week later when it popped into my head that maybe vintage travel trailers weren't the only retro item I could seek out on my travels this year.  Doing a little research online I found out that vintage diners seem to be heavily concentrated out east, but that they are being auctioned off on eBay and making their way west.  One blogger was excited about the built in 1939  Road Island Diner that moved from Rhode Island in 2007 to Oakley, Utah, and after viewing their website I'd be excited too!


The only diner I can remember that I've been in is Frank's Diner in Kenosha.  I went there for breakfast with a friend a few years back and was surprised that I had never known it was there since we had lived in Kenosha for 6 years ourselves. Frank's Diner is a registered historical landmark and the oldest continuing lunch car diner in the US and has been featured on the Food Network. When the prefab railcar-style establishment was pulled into Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1926 by a team of horses, townsfolk lined the streets to watch.


In its time under founder Anthony Franks, it served the likes of the Three Stooges, Bela Lugosi, Duke Ellington, and Liberace. Now they've served me and Wayne, too, because we went out for another date this morning and decided to make it a breakfast date this time!  He said a friend in Kenosha took him here once 20 years ago, but now we've been together. This dining car has had an addition built onto the side and the back as well as a brick front added which keeps the cold out when you open the sliding door to enter the car.

We got lucky by going later in the morning on a weekday and there were two small tables left in the back.  Wayne got the corned beef hash with hash browns and I ordered scrambled eggs with their homemade bread toast and all was delicious. Their homemade bread is also used for their french toast, but they are famous for their "garbage plate" and have even been featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives".  I loved the old woodwork, floors and cabinetry still in use, but it was a bit chilly in there this morning with the weather a mere 1 degree fahrenheit in K-Town.  Total bill: $9.07 without coffee.

This same logo was on the outside of the building on the other side.  Had to make room for more customers!

Frank's is only one of a handful of retro diners in Wisconsin, and I'm adding these guys to my travel must-do list: Miss Katie's in Milwaukee, Monty's Blue Plate Diner in Madison, The Delta Diner in Delta, and the Broadway Diner that just relocated to Baraboo in 2012.  If you know of any others, let me in on the secret!