The Ballston Silver Diner is finally opening this month, which means the Clarendon location is closing after 26 years.
The new Silver Diner at N. Glebe Road and Wilson Blvd, next to Target, is planning to officially start serving on Wednesday, Dec. 14, a restaurant spokesperson told ARLnow.
The planned diner was first announced more than five years ago. The locally-owned chain was originally supposed to open in Ballston in the summer, but the timeline slid later as many construction projects experienced delays due to supply chain and staffing issues.
The new 6,700-square-foot location will be a mile away from the existing Clarendon diner. It’s set to have a full bar plus 244 seats, including 191 indoors and 68 on its outdoor patio. The patio will be open “seasonally.”
There will be 100 parking spots, 40 spots more than the Clarendon location. Parking will be free with a 2-hour validation.
The restaurant will have roughly the same hours as the Clarendon location, opening at 7 a.m. seven days a week and closing between midnight and 3 a.m.
The opening also signals the closing of the Silver Diner in Clarendon, which has sat between Wilson Blvd and N. Irving Street for more than a quarter of a century. The closure has long been expected and will make way for a new development that’s set to include a hotel, gym, and a 286-unit residential building.
That Silver Diner will shutter on Sunday, Dec. 11, the spokesperson said. The purpose behind moving only a mile away was to “maintain [Silver Diner’s] neighborhood presence in Arlington.”
Clarendon’s staff will be moved over to Ballston, per the restaurant’s website.
“They literally expect to shut down one location, walk down the street and open the other location,” a spokesperson wrote ARLnow in August.
The restaurant is planning an auction of memorabilia to support a local charity, we’re told, but details are not yet available.