The Moondance Diner used to be an 80 year old fixture in the trendy SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Last year it was consigned to destruction by a new condo building. The Moondance was up for sale, and the chic artists that had once frequented the little restaurant were long gone.
That’s when a couple from Labarge, Wyoming, spotted the Moondance for sale on the internet. Within a couple weeks they had purchased the diner and shown up in Manhattan with a flatbed truck to haul it away.
That’s when the trouble started. Permit problems and heavy rain delayed transportation. The battered Moondance finally arrived in Wyoming after a long trip and landed on some stacked railroad ties next to Highway 189 with a view of the Rockies.
Former employees Kirsten Dunst and Jonathan Larson were nowhere to be found.
Instead, Cheryl and Vince Pierce set to work refurbishing the old diner for its grand reopening in a remote corner of the least populated state in the union.
Things were going fine until a blizzard dumped 18 inches of snow and the roof crumpled in like a tin can.
Maybe the Moondance moving west wasn’t such a good idea after all.
At least that’s what people in New York started to think, and several articles were posted in city periodicals lamenting the poor, desolate fate of the hapless Moondance. The condescension coming out of New York was hardly concealed and laced with an I-told-you-so subtext.
Cheryl and Vince were unfazed.
The Moondance’s classic front sign finally lit up on January 12, and the completely restored diner has been building buzz ever since.
Many natives of the Big Apple have stopped by to visit, and the locals love the place. The celebrity waitstaff may be gone, but the Moondance has settled down to stay in its new western home.