Business & Tech

Going, Going... Gone

Newly-shuttered Scobee Diner holds auction where everything (literally) must go

Captain Robert Schmidt of Ladder 146 in Douglaston looked for kitchen equipment big and study enough to help feed his hungry company. Wilfredo Cruz came to find pots and pans for the restaurant he planned to open in Jamaica. And Jeannie Seitz arrived to take a last peek at the place she had known since her childhood.

Crowds packed Scobee Diner in Little Neck for one last time Tuesday afternoon at an auction filled with kitchen and dining items seemingly imprinted by five decades worth of toast, broiled steaks and hot fudge.

"We'll take anything we can get," said Scobee co-owner Gus Xikis shortly before the auction. "We just need to get it out of here."

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During the auction itself, Xikis was noticeably absent while friends and strangers alike bid on everything from the diner's huge broiler to its supply of sweetener packet containers.

"I don't need too much of the smaller stuff," said Servando Cid, owner of Mirabella Restaurant in Bayside, biding his time while the restaurant's pots, pans and silverware were sold to the highest bidder. "When they get to the bigger stuff, like the broiler, that's when I'll make my move."

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Among the items sold by auctioneers Michael Amodeo & Co. of Manhattan were 60 of the diner's hardwood chairs, which went for $30 each, along with 11 tables at $20 each.

A large aluminum sauce pot went for $20; two cooking trays sold at $17.50.

In the market for a good sized pot was Schmidt of nearby Ladder 146, the same company that responded to a grease fire in Scobee Diner's ductwork in 2004.

Though area firemen left mostly empty-handed, for Schmidt it was worth it to catch a last look at a hangout from back in his youth. 

"I used to come here after going to the discos," Schmidt said. "I'm sorry to see this place go."

Back at the front of the restaurant, away from the cluster of people making their bids in Scobee's empty dining rooms, Xikis weighed in on what many consider to be an endangered species: the Queens diner.

"Diners are not going to be around for too long, because of the high cost of food, rent and wages," he said.

At the time of its closure, Scobee's payroll for its 40 employees was $22,000 a week, Xikis said.

"In another 15-20 years, you are not going to see another diner," he said.


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