By Emily Bennett
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Auto body shop owner Gabriel Nowak and carpenter Jeremy Rager were going door-to-door delivering Thanksgiving dinners last year when they spotted a dilapidated old train car sitting in someone’s yard.
It was exactly what they had been searching for.
“We were hand delivering meals in West Elizabeth for the fire department, and I saw this train in this gentleman’s fence and knocked on the door, and here we are, five months later,” 36-year-old Nowak said, gesturing to the train car sitting in the front parking lot of his Pittsburgh Performance auto body shop.
Nowak and Rager, longtime friends, had been sifting through internet ads for caboose cars from vintage trains that they could convert into a take-out diner, when they stumbled upon the car in West Elizabeth.
“The auto shop has been a business for 10 years, and me and Jeremy had an idea of what to do with this big corner lot out here facing the town and the Rite Aid — facing 51, and we decided to search for a train caboose, but we found something better,” Nowak said. “A 1930s-50s train car.”
Nowak has been an Elizabeth borough resident for five years, having moved because “of the great location to be on the river and to bring new businesses into town.”
His auto shop had a home in Clairton for 10 years before moving to its new home on Market Street in Elizabeth, where the train was moved by crane Monday afternoon. The auto shop has been gearing up for an Aug. 1 opening and the buzz surrounding the new addition of the train car is palpable.
“I just thought it would be a good idea to start something,” said Rager, who is also the borough’s assistant fire chief. “It was always my dream to start a little restaurant. Then with Gabe, it all sort of fell into place.”
The two friends were getting ready to purchase a caboose from New Jersey when they found the train car, just right across the river.
“This car we bought happens to ironically be a kitchen car,” Nowak said. “The gentleman we bought it from knows a lot of the history and he has acquired some really unique items to go with the train.”
These items include whiskey barrels, original lamps, wagon wheels and a wrought iron fence that is believed to date back to the 1800s. Nowak plans to integrate all of these antiques into the design of the new take-out restaurant, which he hopes to have up and running by spring of 2020 — a fast track, quite literally, to forging a new Elizabeth staple and attraction.
“Our future goal is to have a take-out diner, because this is obviously an old-river town and railroad town,” Nowak said. “We thought that the idea of an old kitchen car sitting on a corner lot, and making it a take-out diner would be something really good for the community.”
The car, now-rusted over, is believed to have originally been painted red or green, although it’s largely unrecognizable from its glory days spent out on the rails. The two friends know they have their work cut out for them, but are anticipating the hours spent both restoring and gutting the interior and exterior of the one-day diner spot.
Neither men have any commercial restaurant experience, but expressed they know how to run a business — and cook, too.
Neither could say who originated the idea of getting a train car, but agreed in unison that “it was both of us” — although the idea began as an old boat instead of a train.
“We had the same vision.” Nowak said.
While their main focus has been completing Nowak’s body shop where Rager has been working as a carpenter, the purchase of the train “just kind of fell into place.”
“Between the two of us, we are trying to figure out whether we try to keep some of the originality and the history on the inside of the train, or do we take it all out to fit the newest restaurant equipment to make it more usable for us to serve food to the community,” Nowak said. “Once you tear it out, your history is gone.”
The car, stretching 40 feet long and nine feet wide, had to be lifted with cranes from its West Elizabeth yard and moved onto a special trailer and then lifted with cranes again, before placing it just so in the parking lot.
The space is too small to fit tables inside for any seating, so a 20 by 20 foot pavilion will be installed in the left corner of the parking lot, and will be designed to resemble an old train station.
“Either you’re going to walk up to a window or possibly walk into one end of the train and get your food, and walk back out and have some outside seating,” Rager said.
The two know that the car needs a lot of TLC, and although they’ll have to install a bathroom and make lots of changes, the inside still has the original retro kitchen.
Aside from quality diner food, Nowak and Rager want to focus on making it both dog- and kid-friendly, and are even adding a dog-friendly item to the menu.
“You see all these little mom and pop stores, which sadly are slowly dying,” Nowak said. “But there are still some stores and businesses that are thriving here. It’s got a little bit of life in it. This is going to be a pretty big thing down here for the town.”