Dinner with the Scandalous

Customers enjoy their meals while surrounded by mug shots of the rich and famous at Mount Holly’s newest diner

By Michelle R. Brown

For a brand new restaurant, getting business can be tough. For the Mug Shot Diner in Mount Holly, NJ, attracting customers is easier than snapping the photo of a celebrity criminal.

Lighting up the corner of High Street and King Street with its blue and yellow radiance, various photos of celebrity mug shots scatter across the walls. Since the diner opened on November 8^th, 2010, customers enjoy their meals while staring around at the sullen comical expressions of Lindsay Lohan, Bill Gates, Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, Michael Jackson, and more.

“The whole area needed something different,” said owner Chris Aivazoglou from Cherry Hill.

Like any other regular new diner, opening a business can have ups and downs. Parking is one major problem that is a nuisance due to the tight fit of the small city-like historical roads.

“Parking is a little bit of a situation,” said Aivazoglou. “It’s like any other city or town. You just take it as it goes and go with it.”

As the owner, Aivazoglou has had family health issues which were an obstacle to overcome in opening the new diner. Other than that, business has been “phenomenal,” said Aivazoglou.

“We are getting busier and busier every week,” said Aivazoglou.

With the current economy, the diner focuses on reasonable aspects.

“I think my menu is cheap enough, it’s affordable, it’s good, the quality is put in the money,” said Aivazoglou.

Aivazoglou’s family also owns the Diamond Diner in Hainesport, which gives the benefit of pulling employees from one diner to work in the other.

He started off building the Mug Shot Diner as a personal project in which he described it as a man’s pet project in the garage, working on an old car. The designing took a little longer than expected because he did all the work himself.

“I built this place with my own two hands, every bit of it, from the floors to the walls to the ceilings, everything,” said Aivazoglou.

The diner got its name from Carol Erickson of CBS 3 News, who mentioned it jokingly in conversation. Her signature can be found on the right side wall underneath the television. Aivazoglou has obtained the mug shots from the city of New York and TMZ, which is a gossip news company that runs a publication and television show. The photos are considered public information, so the copyright is not a problem.

“With the mug shots around everything it’s a bit more fun and it just has a lot of personality,” said waitress Amanda Sharp of Lumberton.

The diner is open seven days a week.

 

*Photos provided by Chris Aivazoglou.

Mug shots are displayed on the walls.

The restaurant is bright with its’ theme of yellow and blue.