Friday, January 15, 2010
Restaurant openings Welcome, Sugar! Diana's Sweet Shoppe Is Here
Posted by Dana Kopp Franklin on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 6:15 PM
Diana's Sweet Shoppe, which takes its name, concept and complete interior from an actual 1926 candy store, threw open its doors on Lower Broadway Thursday with a ribbon-cutting party. (Was it ribbon candy?)
Gibson Guitar Inc. owns the store, which was transported in panels from Port Huron, Mich. Diana's operated in the lakeside town from 1926-2001. Gibson acquired the shop, brought it to Nashville and reopened it with the help of consultants Ben and Max Goldberg of Strategic Hospitality. (The brothers Goldberg are known for cocktail haven Patterson House and other hot projects.)
The new Diana's sells fudge (made in the store in giant copper kettles) and colorful, old-fashioned candy by the pound. There's a soda fountain serving up sundaes and floats made with local Pied Piper Creamery ice cream, and East Nashville's Olive & Sinclair chocolate bars have a prominent presence.
In the dining area, hungry customers can grab a wooden booth and order from the menu, which offers club sandwiches, chicken salad and other traditional lunch counter fare.
The shelves and counters, bright brass sconces and decorated wood-panel walls are all lifted from the Michigan shop. (In the 19th and early 20th centuries, shop interiors were built as panels that could easily be moved and rehung in a new location.)
But the stars of the show are the fudge, the ice cream sundaes and the rows of glass jars filled with wildly colored sweets, everything from old-fashioned taffy to new-fangled gummy green-apple army men.
Diana's Sweet Shoppe serves lunch and dinner; hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. The phone number, 242-5397, isn't in service yet but will be working soon.
Comments (30)
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I can already taste the club sandwich, and, of course, any excuse to eat candy. The idea is a great fit for lower Broad. I do have to wonder how they found Diana's. Was it on Craigslist? Or did someone offer it? Guy in a trench coat?
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I see Gibson owns it - that means it'll stay open for maybe a year or so. Until that month it meets slightly less than some accountants expectations, then it'll be closed. How many concepts have they had in their lower broad space so far? I do hope it does well, however.
I can remember, as a little girl, my grandnmother use to take me to Diana's Sweet Shoppe. I use to live in Port Huron, I would eat at Diana's about once a week. I loved the Pineapple phosphates, they were the best. I can't wait to come to Nashville and stop in at Diana's. I will be there in a couple weeks.
Nashville is so fortunate to have Diana's Sweet Shoppe--we certainly miss it in Port Huron, Michigan.
I would take my boys when they were little to have pizza bagels & phosphates. My mother-in-law and father-in-law use to meet there when they were dating in 1933-1934. It has a long history. The Bill & Leo Delaginis owned it and finally retired.
Enjoy this wonderful, historical Sweet Shoppe!
It seems a tad bittersweet (and I don't mean the fudge colliding with the pineapple in Renee's phosphate) when one town gains by another's loss of its own history. It feels so, well, cheesy and touristy to have someone else's old timey store, doesn't it?
I had lunch there today. I wish I could report great things because they did a good job with the room, but unless you're excited about Mrs Grissom's taste-alike chicken salad and bagged potato chips, I wouldn't get too excited. The tuna melt was much the same. I could almost think it was a funny idea if those simple sandwiches didn't inch up near ten dollars each.
I was also a little surprised that there was no soda fountain counter - to get a milkshake or a sundae, you have to sit at a regular table and be waited on, which did seem to be slowing things down considerably.
Anyway, I'd go get a sundae there if I had a bit of time to spare downtown.
My Grandma and I used to walk up town in Port Huron to Diana's. We used to get the hot, open faced turkey sandwich with gravy.
I really hope they can make this go.
Great childhood memories of Diana's.
Will be down to check it out from Lebanon.
The club sandwich is OK, but the trademark meals of Diana Sweet Shoppe is the basketburger and the pizza bagel. I grew up in this restaurant. It was owned by friends of my family. The two brothers that ran it decided to retire. They had been trying for a while to sell the business before Gibson came along. It was a sad day for many of us when they closed those doors. Now I have to travel to Nashville for my basketburger and cherry phosphate. I hope you all enjoy it and realize what you have is a real treasure. By the way, it gets its name from the Greek goddess, Diana. The owners are Greek.
The club sandwich is good, but the real stars of the Dianna Sweet Shoppe are the basketburger and pizza bagels. I grew up in that restaurant. It was owned by friends of my family. It was a very sad day for many of us when the brothers who operated it decided to retire and close the restaurant. It had been for sale for a few years before Gibson came along and made their offer.
Please enjoy and savor this spot. It will be a memory builder for your children for years to come. I still miss my basketburger and cherry phosphate. Guess that means a trip from Port Huron to Nashville.
Anonymous
Port Huron's loss is Nashville's gain. Diana's has a history and personality like no other. The real treat is the burger basket - mmm, I can taste it now! I visited Diana's many times when I was growing up, and then I would make sure I was a customer there whenever I revisited my hometown after moving away. I am happy it has reopened in a new venue!
We just walked by the empty storefront in Port Huron on a cold dismal January day, oh what a treat it would have been to go in and have a nice lunch like we used to at Diana's. Lots of great memories, ice cream sundaes served in Detroit tiger baseball caps, snow caps from the candy counter, root beer floats and don't forget the potato salad. And just a note the burger basket was never served with bagged chips, so best wishes to Nashville, but make it truly authentic.
I'm sorry Diana's isn't around in Port Huron any longer. I hope we can love it as much as you all did.
I,too, used to go to Diana Sweet's as a child while visiting my grandmother and cousin on summer vacations. My Mother also went as a child and it seemed as if going to Diana's was part of our family history.
Follow the original Diana's, and Nashville will have a Winner ! I can't wait to go !
I too like many of you had lots of memories of dianas my dad used to pick me up from school and take me down there when he could and get a burger basket and listen to the old wurlitzer play. Enjoy nashville i hope you realize how much history and what that places means to us that used to go there.
70 years ago, my parents Willard and Pearl Bailey ,and my Aunt and Uncle Earl and Ruby Shell, went to the premier of "young Tom Edison" at the Desmond Theater in downtown Port Huron. It was a big night so afterwards they went to Diana's Sweet Shop. My Aunt and Uncle also went there for their first date in 1932.
To bad that the people that made Diana's what it was are left for country music celebrities that only come for grand openings where the press is there to put them in the news.
Port Huron will miss you, don't forget you are what you are because of the little people who came every day without the media and press.
My Mother and I would go shopping on Saturdays and we would always stop at Dianas and yes I always got the burger basket and shake. What fond memories! We are going to Nashville in June and will have to stop in.
I definitely have some memories from when I was a little girl of Diana's Sweet Shoppe. My mom and I use to go shopping downtown and go there for a bite to eat after. My mom use to embroider all the D's on the dress's the waitresses wore. Great memories. I will soon make it down there to revisit Diana's!!!
Can't beleave they moved the old place.Port Huron just hasn't been the same since the mall came in years ago.Now I here Diana's was moved to Nashville.WOW ! Really good memories of taking the bus up-town and going to Diana's for a burger and a shake.Can't beleave they don't sell basket burgers! Looked at the menue and they just seem to have over priced sandwiches.Crazey that they didn't bring some of the old menue with them.Planning on going to see the place before it closes! Sounds like it will!!!!!
My parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this April, 2010 and their first date was at Diana's in Port Huron Michigan. I'm just wondering if anyone can email me back...I'm looking for something inexpensive to remind them of their first date there....possibly a napkin or menu or ???
Thanks in advance.
Debbie
dforton@misd.net
I grew up going to Diana's in Port Huron Michigan. I can't wait to see it again in Nashville. I live in Cookeville......Diana's has the best hot fudge carmel Sundays...
I remember going to diana's at least once a week with my mom and brother. and always requesting to play songs from the little mini jukebox players at every booth. i really miss it being in port huron, Nashville better know how lucky they are.. im coming for a visit one day!
I grew up in Port Huron and remember every time the 1040's (the local little league time I was on) Won a game my dad would take every one that wanted to out to diana's for olden time soda's and apple pie. Sure there were only three or four of us die hards that ever went, but it was one heck of an incentive to play our best in those blindingly orange baseball out fits. I now have to make a Anual pilgramage to Nashville to enjoy one of my fondest child hood memory. By the way I'm glad to hear that it hasn't changed that you have to sit in one of those booths and have the Shake or float braught to you. To me that was one of the most charming things about it.
My Great Grandfather owned a Diana Sweets in Spartanburg, SC until his death in 1928. Is this the store the article is referring to?
I grew up with Diana's in Port Huron, I remember always riding my bike downtown, and then driving there just about every Saturday, just to get the BEST MASH Potatos and gravy in the world, I would normally get 2-4 orders of the 3 scoop orders. Next time I make it down to Nashville, I will go there just for them if they are the same ingredients. I have missed it since they closed up here.
I grew up in Port Huron and remember going in there with a group of kids from church. We were all SO sad when it closed down. Now we all live in different states, some in TN, hopefully one day we will get to go visit Diana's. AWESOME experience!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm from New Zealand and was passing through Nashville on 19th May 2011 when i visited Diana's Sweet shop for some lunch... I had a bacon & turkey sandwich , a hot fudge sunday which was just so delicious , the sunday was so large but i made a pig of myself and ate it all so yummmm...then followed by the best coffee i'd had on the whole trip since Chicago..the service was fast , efficient , friendly & helpful when the waitress brought me some info on a certain shop I was looking for...thaks so much only wish we had sweet shops like that here in New Zealand..i'm returning to Nashville next year so will definitely be calling in....cheers ladies
A lot of memories of Diana's Sweet Shoppe. When I was younger my grandmother and I used to go there every week. Wish they would of kept it here, would of loved to be able to bring my kids and grandchildren to the one place that brings back so many memories. Can't believe they moved it so far away, would like to go to Nashville sometime to visit and bring back those memories, but it will never be the same. Nashville you should feel honored to have such a wonderful place.
I remember this place when i lived in port huron,i used to take my girl friend Paula VanNess there sometimes,it had a great atmosphere,with the dark panelling,and booths, the food wasn't all that great as i remember,the pastries were from Frenches bakery,they were very good,probably because my dad made them
