Beacon Diner -- CLOSED

Beacon Diner -- CLOSED

It's a beacon! It's a diner! It's the Beacon Diner!

Beacon Diner's custom clock, 2015.
(November 11, 2015).

2939 South County Trail, East Greenwich
(401) 884-9807

The Beacon is not a classic manufactured diner, but it still has a classic manufactured diner vibe. More importantly, it has a little lighthouse on its roof and (non-working) baby jukes in the booths. The menu offers everything a hungry trucker, cop, or salesman could want, including all the traditional breakfast combinations, house-made corned beef hash and house-made jelly, steak and eggs, American Chop Suey, clam chowder, coffee milk, and classic West Bay-style thick "johnny cakes." Slather 'em with butter and go to town!

Beacon Diner exterior, 2015.
(November 11, 2015).
Johnnycakes, 2015.
Johnnycakes, slathered in butter. (November 11, 2015).

If you've seen the movies Hard Luck (2006) or 27 Dresses (2008), you've seen the Beacon Diner. A scene for the former was filmed there in 2005, and Katherine Heigl and James Marsden acted out a scene for the latter there in June 2007.

Hard Luck screenshot.
James Liao and Cybill Shepherd react to a pint-sized ghost at the Beacon Diner in Hard Luck.

A 1988 Yankee article noted that "Vernon Knott, a soft-spoken Iowa native, has owned the Beacon for 20 years and runs it with his wife Marlene, son Keith, and daughter Eva Platt." By 2007 the owner was listed as Judy Harris in a North-East Independent article.

The Beacon Diner celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2017.

The Beacon Diner is open Monday to Saturday, 6am-1:30pm, and Sunday, 7am-1:30pm.

Awards

  • Best Diner in South County, Rhode Island Monthly's Readers' Poll, 1994.
  • Best Diner in the West Bay, Rhode Island Monthly's Readers' Poll, 2012.

Last Edited
2022-01-17