Diggers Diner

Name of business: Diggers Diner

Type of business: Restaurant

Owners: DiAnn and Jon Lei

Founded: October 2008

Address: 2261 Balfour Road, Brentwood

Phone number: 240-8958

Hours: Monday through Saturday 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Number of employees: 25

Products and services: Diggers Diner offers American style home cooking featuring hamburgers, shakes, fries and a large assortment of breakfast meals. They also feature a variety of salads, as well as steak sandwiches. The most popular menu dishes include their classic bacon burger, ballpark fries and the breakfast sandwich. They carry a full menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

How did you get into the business? The Lei’s never intended on getting into the restaurant business, DiAnn explained. She said that her aunt started Diggers in Concord. When her aunt became ill, DiAnn who helped her aunt during her lunch hours, agreed to purchase the business. That was 10 years ago. Since then the Concord restaurant has been successful. When the couple moved to Knightsen with their young children, they saw a need for their style restaurant in the area and found a great location in Brentwood and decided to open a second restaurant. Now, DiAnn’s aunt manages the Concord diner, while Jon and DiAnn run the new Brentwood location.

Best part about the business: “It really has to be the people and having them leave happy,” Jon said. DiAnn went on to say that they love to make people happy. When coming into the diner they get to have a great meal and nice conversation. “We like it that we can make someone’s day better,” DiAnn said.

Worst part about the business: “There really is no bad thing about the business,” DiAnn said. “It’s no easy work, but nothing worth having is easy.”

Key to success: “We love our customers and make them feel welcome,” DiAnn said. Jon went on to say that their prices are reasonable and they have good quality food.

“The food is terrific and the service is great,” DiAnn said.

Biggest misperception about the business: They said that people are surprised to find that the diner doesn’t serve alcohol. The important thing to the Lei’s is that the restaurant is kept family friendly. “People don’t expect that when they come in the place will seem so welcoming. They expect us to be just another chain type restaurant, but we have a more down home feeling,” DiAnn said.

Future plans: The Lei’s plan to keep going the way they have been. They don’t anticipate opening any new diners in the future. “We have a terrific manager in Concord, my aunt. For now this is enough,” DiAnn said.