ALBANY — The final meals after nearly 50 years will be served on Friday at Dan’s Place II, one month to the day after the beloved diner’s co-owner and head cook, Tom Deuel, died suddenly.
His sister Donna Bloomfield, who owned the business with him and their two siblings after inheriting it from their mother, its co-founder, said Tuesday that the closure and eventual sale of the diner was planned before Tom Deuel’s death, but that his passing hastened the process. She said the remaining siblings are planning to put the business and building, at 494 Washington Ave., on the market, but it is not yet formally listed.
The diner opened in 1977 at 460 Madison Ave., near Washington Park and Lark Street, becoming Dan’s Place II when it moved to Washington Avenue to take over the former Manhattan Diner. Donna Deuel established the restaurant with Dan Mahoney, the diner’s eponymous co-founder, her longtime companion and a father figure to her children. Mahoney died in 1992; Donna Deuel, four years later…