31 Days of Halloween with The Kelly Society Day 19 - Haunted Diners

31 Days of Halloween with

The Kelly Society

Day 19

Hey there!

Brian and Josh are back again with our Haunted series. Today we’re going to share three haunted diners with you, and we hope to eat at all of them someday. Hopefully, we will experience a cold breeze, a wispy voice, or even an apparition. Fingers crossed!

Patrick’s Roadhouse, Santa Monica, CA

(Pictured above) The origin description and spooky events relayed below about Patrick’s Roadhouse came from their website.

Read on, if you dare!

The Poor Man’s Getty

According to legend, one fateful day Bill Fischler (with his family) stopped in for lunch and had one of the worst hamburgers of his life. Never one to hide his displeasure, Fischler confronted the owner, who snapped back “If you don’t like it, why don’t you buy this dump, and make your own damn burger!” That is precisely what happened. The next day, Fischler renamed the stand “Patrick’s” (after his son) and found himself behind the counter making the kind of high-quality burgers that he liked to eat. With this simple idea, over the years Fischler expanded the stand (breaking through a brick wall) into the adjoining hotel next door, and decorated it (Adams Family-style) with strange artifacts. Referring to the museum on the hill, he used to call his dining room “the poor man’s Getty.” Although, Fischler passed away many years ago, his presence is still felt in many ways, especially with regard to the standard he set for his burgers. President Clinton, while visiting L.A., made his motorcade take a detour just to try this famous menu item.

Some even claim Fischler’s presence is so strong in this restaurant that every now and then he makes an appearance (from the after-life) to check up on things. Although his visits are generally friendly ones, a former cook is said to have quit because he didn’t like the dirty looks Fischler’s ghost gave him from the back of the restaurant. Even in death, it seems Fischler is still not one to hide his displeasure.

The Weeping Woman

Secondly, (also from the back of the restaurant) there is the ghost of a woman dressed in black, who witnesses have heard crying. Although her actual identity is unknown, there are many theories about her life. Some believe she is connected to a possible brothel that may have operated out of the adjoining hotel, whose heart was broken when she fell in love with one of her “customers”. Others think that she may have been a frustrated actress, who never graduated past being a waitress.

Now we go across the country to New York State.

O’hana’s Diner

Tupper Lake, NY in the beautiful Adirondacks

Ohana’s started as a small repair business, then it became a bar, restaurant, and finally a ’50s diner.

The owner feared working alone, because someone she could not see would speak her name. Other workers have heard mysterious noises, seen things move and even felt someone touch them. Most of these occurrences take place in the hallway between the kitchen and bathroom.

The volume on the jukebox has been known to turn up or down in volume when no one was near it, and other times white noise projected from the speakers. Also, buttons on the popcorn machine have turned on by themselves.

Brian credits the segment below on Ohana’s Diner to Tupperlake.com, and was originally posted on October 31, 2016 by Shaun Kittle:

I met Ohana’s owner, Amanda Gonyea-Kelly, earlier that afternoon, and she explained that the place was home to more than a restaurant — a couple of young men dressed in 1920’s garb also resided within its walls. They’re not tenants or customers, though. They’re ghosts, apparitions that appear at seemingly random times and have a penchant for making sounds and tampering with objects and people.

Even though she said they aren’t there anymore — a trick a mysterious stranger told Amanda about worked in dispelling them — I was still hoping some evidence of their presence lingered.

After Ohana’s opened, Amanda’s sister was cleaning the place after it closed one night when she saw the two young men in 1920's attire standing in the hallway that leads into the kitchen. She was terrified.

Amanda was having her own encounters, too. One day she felt someone quickly approaching her from behind — she could feel their footsteps making the floor vibrate —but when she turned around no one was there.

After the diner opened, two servers had separate encounters. One day, Nicole was standing with her back to that hallway when she felt like someone was there. She turned and saw a well-dressed man hurriedly walking toward her. “It looked like someone was running down the hallway really fast when I turned around,” Nicole said. “He was tall and had dark hair. He looked kind of like a shadow, more of a shape than anything. I was always skeptical about that sort of thing until this place.”

On a different occasion, April was standing in the hallway when she felt fingers run down her neck. It didn’t seem malicious, but it’s disturbing to feel something touch you, especially if no one is there. “I hadn’t heard about Nicole’s happening, which I think was a couple of days prior,” April said. “At first I thought a fly had landed on my neck, but it was different. It felt like fingers. It really freaked me out.”

These weren’t isolated incidents. Both women have seen and heard weird things while working at Ohana’s. The jukebox and popcorn machines often turn themselves on and off, and Nicole’s phone was once tossed from the top of the jukebox while she was working in the next room.

Even though, they no longer report incidents since the cleansing, the memories will remain with them forever.

And now, for our final haunted diner, we return to the West Coast—San Francisco. Brian and I have actually eaten at this restaurant, but we didn’t experience anything. Brian says we are going back again to give it another chance very soon. We will give you all an update if something happens.

Pinecrest Diner San Francisco, California

Here’s what Pastemagazine.com says:

Visitors to this 24 hour greasy spoon in San Francisco’s touristy Union Square area might notice a unique addendum to the menu: no poached eggs. The reason behind this otherwise innocuous dish has a dastardly origin: in 1997 a cook murdered a waitress in cold blood after she rebuked him for cooking a customer poached eggs, which were off menu. It may be tempting to order them just to see what happens, but you may end up calling forth the waitress’s ghost instead of eating breakfast.

We couldn’t find an actual incident of a cold spot, disembodied voice, or items moving at the Pinecrest Diner. We really searched hard, and then Josh and I finally understood. It’s fear. The fear of someone ordering poached eggs or demanding they be served off menu is what keeps the “Haunted” vibe alive in this place. We thought that was pretty cool. Many times fear alone can be more haunting than actually seeing an apparition!

So, we hope you are hauntingly hungry now! We know—bad joke, but once we thought of it, we had to type it in. :)

Have a great Halloween everybody!

Brian & Josh for

The Kelly Society