New operator selected for Hollywood Diner

Thomasino's Pizza Subs & Pasta, LLC, has been selected as the new operator of the Hollywood Diner.  A restaurant by that name used to operate in the city's Arlington neighborhood. It was not immediately clear if it's the same entity, and, if so, whether the diner will be run with the same concept.

The Board of Estimates must still approve a lease arrangement, but Thomasino's has been given a Right of Entry to go into the diner, according to a representative from the Comptroller's office of real estate.

Late last year, the city terminated its lease with the Chesapeake Center for Youth Development, the nonprofit organization that ran the diner since 1991. The youth center vacated the diner last December but an operating partner was allowed to remain open until March 31.

Funded entirely by private donations and opened to great fanfare in 1984 as the Kids' Diner, the restaurant was originally run by the city schools and the mayor's office as a job-training program for youths. It was leased to the youth center beginning in 1991. The nonprofit ran the restaurant until 2009, when it began working with a series of outsider operators, none of whom succeeded.