Dig's Diner May Close After 17 Years In Downtown Warsaw
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
A restaurant on the corner of Main and North Buffalo streets best known for its hot chili and homemade desserts may close its doors for good.
Bill "Dig" DeGaetano, owner of Dig's Diner, said he has been considering for the past six months selling the building at 114 N. Buffalo St. due to problems with hiring qualified employees.
He said he has advertised for help and gotten responses from some people who are not qualified or no responses at all.
DeGaetano said Halderman Real Estate Services, Wabash, put a sign up July 9 outside the store informing customers of a sealed bid auction for the building.
Open houses will be held Tuesday and Thursday for people interested in purchasing the building. Bids will be due Aug. 2 by 5 p.m.
"Good help is hard to find, and it can sometimes be ungratifying work in the restaurant business, but it makes all the difference when customers smile and tell us their meal tasted good," DeGaetano said.
DeGaetano said the decision to sell the facility was not an easy one to make.
"Nothing is signed in blood, but we will wait and see who decides to buy the facility," he said.
DeGaetano opened Dig's Diner in downtown Warsaw March 12, 1990, with his wife Nanette.
The diner has eight other employees who help with serving food, washing dishes, cooking and ringing up customers' bills.
DeGaetano's niece, Danielle DeGaetano, 19, has been a waitress at the diner for the past four years, and said she respects her uncle's decision to possibly sell the facility.
"If it benefits my uncle, I support his decision," Danielle said.
"I will miss the customers who I have come to know by name and what they order."
Danielle said she has fond memories of her father, Phillip, taking her to breakfast at the diner as a young girl before she would go to Washington Elementary School.
Warsaw resident William Puckett said he has eaten at the diner since 1990, and said he will be sad if the building is sold.
"The service at Dig's has always been above and beyond the call of duty," Puckett said.
"I would be very upset if the diner closes because it is one of the last restaurants in downtown Warsaw that is family-run."
For more information about the open houses, call Halderman Real Estate Services at 800-424-2324 or call Mark Metzger at 260-982-8064.
