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Metro 29 Diner has spent three decades serving oversized breakfasts, house-made desserts and classic American fare from its chrome-clad home at Langston Boulevard and Glebe Road in North Arlington.
Co-owner Peter Bota entered the restaurant business after college, working at his cousin’s successful Brooklyn diner. Although he had studied broadcasting, Bota saw an opportunity after moving to Northern Virginia, where he believed the region lacked the kind of diners he knew in New York.
Bota and business partner John Kanellias secured an open lot in 1991. Their families built the restaurant from the ground up and opened Metro 29 in 1995. According to Bota, business exceeded their break-even expectations on the first day.
The railcar-inspired diner combines Art Deco features with a 210-seat dining room. Chrome, glass blocks, booth-side jukeboxes, Formica counters and a larger restaurant-style section in the rear give it the look of a traditional diner on a grand scale.
Bota is often on the dining-room floor, while Kanellias oversees cooking and expediting in the kitchen. Several employees have worked at Metro 29 since its opening. Bota has also been known to check on regular customers when they miss their customary meals.
Breakfast is served throughout the day. The menu includes Belgian waffles, corned beef hash with eggs, lox and bagels, silver-dollar pancakes and character-shaped pancakes for children. A Greek omelet comes filled with feta, tomato and onion, while the pancakes are made with fresh eggs and vanilla.
The dinner menu offers steaks, chops and daily seafood specials. On weekends, the diner serves roasted leg of lamb with gravy made from scratch.
That lamb dish and Metro 29’s challah French toast brought national attention in 2010, when Guy Fieri featured the restaurant on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” The episode debuted over Thanksgiving weekend, producing what Bota described as a major increase in business.
A lower-level bakery occupies about half of the diner’s 12,000-square-foot building and operates six days a week. It produces cakes, cookies, muffins, Danish pastries and the challah used for French toast.
The diner’s display case holds 18 varieties of pastries, including meringue pies, strawberry-topped cheesecakes and frosted chocolate cakes. Everything is prepared in-house.
Over its 30-year history, Metro 29 has served Arlington regulars as well as prominent visitors, including Guy Fieri and Joe Biden during his vice presidency. The diner remains open at 4711 Langston Boulevard in Arlington.