PHOENIX - Mel's Diner was once a star, appearing weekly on network television with its sign featuring a tipped coffee cup and an arrow of spilled coffee that pointed to sitcom hilarity.
Now, the property's owners have brought the Phoenix eatery to its "Alice" roots, trying to trade on any nostalgia left for the once-beloved CBS show. And for the first time, it'll really be Mel's Diner.
The diner's link was dormant even while the show was in its prime in the late-1970s and early 1980s. No one thought to turn the diner into a tourist attraction until it fell into the hands of Emmanouil Stivaktakis and his wife six years ago.
The two Greek immigrants hadn't even seen the show until recently.
"Alice" ran on TV from 1976 to 1985. Although it was filmed on a Hollywood soundstage, the show was set in Phoenix, at a greasy spoon called Mel's Diner.
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For most of the show's run, its opening credits showed that memorable Mel's Diner sign. It was on-screen for only a second but long enough to sear the image into the pop-culture conscience.
Stivaktakis had never heard of Linda Lavin (who played the title role) or the catchphrase "Kiss my grits!" (which launched a thousand T-shirts) before he bought the diner.
But this summer, he had his waitresses start dressing in uniforms reminiscent of "Alice," although in black rather than pink. He already had decorated the walls with photos and newspaper clippings about the show. And he put cast photos on his menu, calling it the "world famous" Mel's Diner.
"Maybe the people will like it more," Stivaktakis said of the changeover.
Stivaktakis is planning a memorabilia case in which to display more of the artifacts, including an original script, that he picked up through Internet auctions.
