ALBANY — One year after the diner Dan’s Place II closed, the beloved Washington Avenue eatery is being replaced by a similar business called Trixie’s Diner by people intent on keeping alive the spirit that animated Dan’s Place for almost 50 years.
It is owned and will be operated by Casey McGuinness and partner Paulo Martins, with help from McGuinness’ sister Katie McGuinness. They are buying the building, at 494 Washington Ave. from the Deuel family, who opened the business as Dan’s Place in another Albany location in 1977, becoming Dan’s Place II upon taking over the former Manhattan Diner on Washington Avenue in 1988.
The sale was confirmed by Carl “Butch” Deuel, whose mother co-founded the diner and who, with his three siblings, owned Dan’s Place II after she died in 1996. The death in June of last year of brother Tom Deuel, the diner’s main cook, prompted his surviving siblings to close the business a month later and put the building on the market…