HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, NJ – The Bendix Diner has been featured in several films, TV shows and commercials, including Jersey Girl, Boys on the Side, and The Many Saints of Newark. The diner’s Greek-American owner, John Diakakis, who happens to be blind, has also been featured in documentaries, including the latest, Bendix: Site Unseen, highlighting his unique story.
He “brings customers their coffee and eggs as he cracks disarming jokes, and rings them up on the old-fashioned register,” NorthJersey.com reported, noting that Diakakis “has been legally blind since birth,” and “navigates the narrow space behind the counter of the Bendix Diner with the familiarity of someone who’s been working there for decades.”
“His family has owned the classic eatery decked with chrome and neon since 1985, when his father bought the place,” NorthJersey.com reported, adding that the Bendix diner has operated at the same location since 1947.
“I’m not sure when they notice I’m blind or not,” Diakakis says of his customers in the documentary, NorthJersey.com reported. “Just as I’m walking around, they get it.”
Bendix: Site Unseen was screened at the Ridgewood International Film Festival and the ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York, “which is dedicated to telling the stories of people with disabilities,” NorthJersey.com reported, noting that “the filmmaker, Anthony Scalia, came upon the diner one late night in 2016.”
At about 3 AM, Scalia “was looking for a place to eat” and “the Bendix was the only place that was open nearby,” NorthJersey.com reported, adding that “although the diner was just a few miles from his Lodi home, Scalia had never gone in.”
“A waiter came to the table, and I could tell something was off. Instead of putting the glass of water on the table, he kind of hovered over and waited for me to grab it,” Scalia told NorthJersey.com. “Eventually, I asked: ‘Are you blind?’ He told me, ‘Yeah, and that’s my son working the grill. He just got accepted to Harvard.’”
“Scalia, who works as a freelance editor, had made short documentaries, about Cardy’s Sugar Bowl, an old-fashioned candy store in Lodi, the Lafayette Theater in Suffern, New York, and Clinton Place, a street in Hackensack famous for its over-the-top Halloween decorations,” NorthJersey.com reported.
“I’d made a few short films about people or things in Jersey I thought were interesting,” he told NorthJersey.com. “I grew up five minutes from the Bendix but always passed it by. I thought: ‘Here’s this great story right in my backyard.’”
“The eatery got its name from a nearby aviation parts manufacturer,” NorthJersey.com reported.
“Teterboro used to be called Bendix… There was a Bendix Corporation, other things,” Diakakis says in the film, NorthJersey.com reported. “This run-down diner is the only one that kept the name.”
“Scalia didn’t start filming until 2018, and it took him three years to complete,” NorthJersey.com reported, adding that “over time, as he got to know Diakakis — his history, talents and quirks — the project evolved and didn’t fit into the seven-minute format he had used in his other films.”
“It just didn’t do the story justice,” Scalia told NorthJersey.com. “That’s when I released the idea of what the format should be and let the story take its own shape.”
“Diakakis gained custody of his three sons, Tony, Dimitri, and Michael, when they were young,” NorthJersey.com reported, noting that “the boys grew up at the diner and eventually worked there with him, doing homework during slow times.”
“Tony, the oldest, graduated from Harvard last year,” and “the other two are still in college,” NorthJersey.com reported, adding that “in the documentary, Diakakis performs stand-up at a local comedy club and displays his vast shoe collection — he estimates he owns about 700 pairs.”
Diakakis calls the Bendix “Cheers with food,” NorthJersey.com reported, pointing out that Diakakis “and his family that are the heart of the film.”
“I don’t have two eyes that see, but I have six eyes that see for me,” Diakakis says, NorthJersey.com reported.
The 26-minute film “was screened last fall at several film festivals, including DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in the country, the Naples International Film Festival in Florida, and Kevin Smith’s SModcastle Film Festival in Atlantic Highlands,” NorthJersey.com reported, adding that “it won the Audience Award and Best New Jersey Short at the Montclair Film Festival in October.”
Bendix: Site Unseen was screened at the Ridgewood International Film Festival on April 27, and at the ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York on April 29 and May 2, and is streaming on the festival’s website until May 3 at https://reelabilities.org/newyork/.
The trailer for the film is available on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3p68J8X.
