All right, you all know Dana Schaefer. She was the former producer of The Fork Report. She had been with ABC. She pops all over the place. She went from here to the East Coast, and now she's got another adventure. And we're going to get up to date with Dana. Dana, how are you, my friend?
Hey, how's it going good?
So last time I saw following you on social media, you left one of your dream jobs. I did in radio for ABC correct and so what the hell what are you doing? And why?
I like to say that I am fun employed right now? Oh, because anything that I do must be fun. And that might sound ridiculous, but I love radio and I wanted to be more creative and tell stories, and I you know, towards the end, I wasn't really doing that. I was doing more sales and everything, which is a crazy job and it's so but I wanted to do something just more fun, and it gave me the opportunity I had. Like the fact that I had the opportunity to just
be fun employed. As I say, you know that I have support system around me, my boyfriend, my parents, everyone's right down the street from me. I've been planning this for a while is awesome, but then it also gives me the opportunity to do things like really focus in like we spoke before about the diner, and you know,
just do and figure it out, you know. And I think a lot of people are at that point, especially with everything going on in the world, where they're just trying to do stuff that serves them more of a purpose and to be happier.
So I so you go into the grocery store and you do you do? You put fun on the table and say how much you find I mean, there's actually real life going on around you, as much as we'd all like to be fun employed. What how do you how do you pay your bills?
Well? Good question, So I do have.
I do work at a restaurant, and I've always worked at this restaurant since I started in radio, like ten to fifteen years ago. So even when I was full time, I was still working at the restaurant on the side.
Yeah, yeah, So I was working.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights after work and you know, luckily those three days there as a server. As long as everyone tips, well please tip your servers.
It's a thing.
Sorry we're not in Italy, but it will it will at least supplement my rent. And you know, luckily I've I've saved up enough and I'm doing little side gigs here and there. I also work at a cafe in my town. Also, just you know, for funzies.
It sounds like auto pay to pay her bills. Yes, that's what it sounds like. Wow.
Yeah, but you know, it's it's it's a journey and I'm just trying to figure it out. But also going to what you were just talking about, like dining out that is so important for small businesses. Like the restaurant that I work at there's only six tables, but we rely on people dining out to support that restaurant, and I do to support my bills. But also you know, knowing me and trying to restore this diner in Jersey that I'm doing for the l.
Yeah, we're going to get to that too.
Yeah, I want to get an update exactly.
But like the last year and a half or so doing that, you know, I've met so many other diner owners everywhere, and they used to be twenty four to seven and now they're not because people are not dining out as late or not dining out as often. And there's also people that are not going to work at these places anymore. So it's a struggle all around. So we really need that support system.
So yeah, I know, here's the thing you can if nothing else, Yes, or to take out I get all that, But ultimately, especially if you're having it delivered by a third party or any of these things, they're not making what you think they're making out of health food. There's two The margins are too small. So ultimately, going in dying and having a complete meal, and that means you can get beverages, they don't have to be alcoholic beverages, get dessert, get appetizers, have that whole meal is really
how they're gonna stay alive. So I'm glad you echo that because I know you've been in that business for a long time. Now, what about your baking. You're a big baker. You love baking. Is that playing a part of any of your fun employment?
Yes, it is actually, And then you know it's a blessing in disguise, because if I didn't leave my job, I wouldn't have the opportunity to bake as much as I do. The owners of the restaurant that I work at, they sell my cheesecakes now for dessert and it's taken off a lot where you know, and I've also been starting to push my Instagram a lot more my dessert Instagram now that I have the time.
To well give it to everybody.
Dana's Desserts.
It rolls off the tongue.
Yeah right.
It's actually the ten tenth anniversary of the launch of Dana's Desserts this year.
Nice alliteration. Thank you, Dana's Delicious Desserts.
On demand A triple quadruple.
D that's great. And your style is an East Coast style cheesecake.
Yeah, it's a classic cheesecake.
So it's not New York cheesecake New York style because there's difference in that the New York style has a lot more eggs, which makes it dense, and also is heavy cream and cream cheese based. When a classic cheesecake that you might find anywhere else, it is more the heavy cream is supplemented with sour cream, so it's like it's sour cream and cream cheese and less eggs.
And that's the kind that I have.
It's lighter, it's creamier, and then it has a GRAMD cracker crust One of my most popular ones is a lemon sambuca cheesecake, so I have. Yeah, it's a sambuca bass with a sour cream layer and then a lemon shimmer layer, which is just fresh lemon juice and a little bit of cornstarts, sugar and water which makes it like almost like a lemon rang But that's one of the most popular, and I have multiple orders of that when I go home this week.
You got that. You can't help that shimmer water.
You need that lemon shimmer water over here.
Water here. Right now, we're talking to my friend Dana Schaeffer. She was the former producer of The Fork Report, you may remember, and she loves baking and she's been in radio for a long time. Well, she just left one of her dream gigs with ABC Radio to pursue some dreams and one of those has to do with the new Jersey diner that she wants to bring back to life data. How's that going?
It is crazy?
Side note, I'm getting ripped by everyone over here for not bringing in a cheesecake, So sorry about that.
I owe you one.
Yeah, geez, I know, I know I wasn't gonna start it because I knew Kayla would.
Yep, she's calling me out.
Yeah, but yeah, the diner thing, it's a very interesting journey. And it's so funny because I really haven't gone out of my way to promote it other than just being on social media and just really everyone's been coming and falling in front of me that I need to talk to right now. I don't know where we left off from the last time we talked, but it's pretty crazy because these diners, these nineteen forty like train car kind of like diners. They're about forty feet long and fourteen
feet wide, that's it. But they have four beams on the bottom of them where you can slide basically a truck underneath or like the you know, platform underneath to pick them up and move them. And that's where I'm at because unfortunately the owners of the diner where it stands, they kind of backed out of keeping.
They want the land. Yes, so therefore you don't own this diner. I do not, but they you have no right to this diner. What whoever cleaning now?
Exactly? Yeah, It's it's really funny. People are like, are you sneaking in? And I'm like, no, I'm not. They give me the key and everything, but I don't have like, really anything into this diner other than hopes and dreams.
Yeah, I mean, you could finish cleaning it, and they could take it somewhere and open it without you, and there's nothing you could do about it.
And I know they won't do that because it's been sitting there for thirty years vacant. But it is a fear of mine that every day I pass this diner thinking that one day I'll see a demolition truck right there. And it's a big fear of mine because I'm basically in the eleventh hour right now of trying to figure
out what I can do with this. So I spoke to the town and you know, there's a few areas is where there's unutilized land where maybe possibly we can get a land lease or do something where we can move this diner to keep it. Unfortunately, there's not that much land to go, and one spot that we had an option to do needed a lot of infrastructure. And it's crazy because I've never knew anything about this until
I started this whole journey. But you know, to find the sewage lines, the gas lines, the water electric all the infrastructure that you need. And then if it's on a lower part of the land, you need the power to push up the pressure to you know, get the sewage out and all this stuff. So the amount of money that I would that I don't have, that I would use to put into this diner now would have
to go into the infrastructure. But then I went to another area where there's parking and you know, take about only eight parking spots. But the thing is with that is they they don't know if they can, you know, take away those parking spots and utilize it for the diner. So I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now.
Water and electricity and everything else in those areas.
Too, yeah, and so yeah exactly.
But the one spot where there is the parking, why I was really trying to put it over there is because it's easy to connect to water lines, gas lines, everything because it's right off the main road. And a thing, at least in Jersey, if you have an area, even if the infrastructure is not there, if it's in a certain amount of footage away from the main road, like PS and G will hook it up for free because it's I guess it's just I don't know, some kind
of thing with that. So I'm actually in the process. I talked to a guy that moves diners in Massachusetts who is willing to help me if I can board up this diner and at least get it prepped for a move. And I'm working on finding a piece of land for it right now, which is really stressful but also a quite a journey.
And what's in it for the landowner?
I mean, ideally I would it would be a town piece of land that's not utilized, and then therefore it would just bring more traction to the town, right, So that's kind of like what I'm I'm putting it as. Because this is a historical landmark. It's something that would you know, could bring movies to the area, like you know, pr to the area, all that kind of stuff, So
it would be really great to have there. Funny enough, working at my restaurant, And this is what I'm talking about, like everything happens for a reason, and everything just kind of gets placed in.
Front of me.
Do you know Amanda fry Tag She's on a food network. Yeah, and she's blonde hair. She's great, but she just randomly popped into the restaurant that I work at a few weeks ago, and I'm like, she looks so familiar. I thought she was just a customer that comes in. I was like, why do you look so familiar? And she's like, oh, you know, I'm from the area. It was like, what's your name? She's like Amanda, and I'm like Amanda. She's
like fright tag and I'm like, no freaking way. Because she had a show with Ty Pennington at the time that was a diner restoration show, and so I told her, oh, my whole spiel. And she also loved my cheesecake, which was awesome because she tried it. So I've had my own little rendition of Chopped at the restaurant one day.
Wow.
But yeah no, but she was like, you know, keep going if there's anything that she can help. But she's following the journey now too, so I have a lot of support. It's just really about finding the right area now. But it's really cool about these diners and these historic diners. They are made to move, and that's something that a lot of people don't know. And you know, as long as the infrastructure in the restaurant or in the diner is you know pretty good. Which mine is you can move it anywhere.
Yeah, my backyard.
So I told my dad and I'm like, yeah, you've read it paste if we put a diner on the side of the house, and he's like, you're insane.
I'm like, but like it won't be open, you know, like I'm not going.
To open it because it's owning laws, but just to keep it there, to keep it safe. So I mean, if you see a diner, I mean yeah, I.
Mean that's another thing is you can put it somewhere just to get it up to a place exactly where you could have you know, people with money come through and see the potential exactly.
And I think that's the biggest part of it is just showing that there's the potential and having like this idea and rendering of what it could be.
You know, well, that's amazing. All right. Let everybody know how they can follow you on that particular journey.
You can follow the diner at Little Falls Diner and that's on Instagram and then I am Dana M. Schaeffer on Instagram and Dana's Desserts.
Got too many socials to run.
Yeah, a lot of socials. We'll always used to hear your voice, my friend, and see you. I hope all is well, and keep us posted on on all of the festivities and crazy stuff you do throughout.
Absolutely next time I'm here, I will give you a cheesecake promise.
Now you're talking like that's the only reason we wanted to hear. I'm no like you.
That's how it works around here. They don't care about me either, They just won't. I get it all right, my friend will go and continue to do good things and be safe.
Okay, appreciate you. Thanks so much.