One afternoon, Longwood University students Jeff Ludwig (2015) and Jordan McWilliams (2015) were having lunch at Walker’s Diner, a frequent hangout for members of Iota Lambda Chapter for many years.
The two were chatting with the owner, Arlene Mosher, when she mentioned a contest that she had been thinking about entering. The contest was for a new TV show called “American Diner Revival,” hosted by Ty Pennington and Amanda Freitag. The contest winner’s diners would be featured on the TV show and they would receive a cash prize, and their diner would receive a make-over. To be eligible for the contest, potential contestants had to submit a video talking about their diner and its relationship with the community.
The brothers decided to help Arlene with the video, and shortly after submitting the video they were contacted by an agency working with the “American Diner Revival” TV show. The agency wanted to know more about the chapter’s relationship with Walker’s Diner and owner Arlene.
“Our chapter got involved with Arlene awhile back simply because a lot of the brothers would eat at the diner each week. Eventually friendships were formed and Arlene became a big supporter of our chapter events and of our brothers. In turn, we have helped paint the inside and outside of the diner and have helped Arlene out with things at the diner,” said McWilliams.
Over the next few months Ludwig and McWilliams
were in contact with the agency. They did a few interviews and eventually they learned that Walker’s Diner had been selected as a contest winner.
“From that point on our main responsibilities were to gather enough volunteers to help do the renovation. It was fairly easy to get the chapter on board to help, but the tricky part was not spoiling the surprise,” said McWilliams. “We were told that we could tell our brothers about Walker’s Diner winning, but the network wanted to keep it a secret up until filming. We were also not to spread the word out on any media sites,” he said.
When it came time to film the TV show, Ludwig and McWilliams had no idea that they would be so involved in the filming and actual story line.
“Being a part of a television show was certainly an experience all in itself, and we ended up playing a significant role,” said McWilliams. “It was certainly interesting to see how everything is done behind the scenes in a TV show, and it definitely shed new light on the world of television for all of us.”
The filming and renovation took place over a long weekend. Changes consisted of freshening up the outside, adding a patio, fencing, painting the inside, changing out the bar stools for a 1950s look, and installing a new smoker and peanut cooker. Another change included a new “Specialty Menu” created by Freitag.
"Fraternity Fix-up" will air Friday, June 26, at 10:30 p.m. EST on Food Network's “American Diner Revival”.
To read the story written by Longwood University's The Rotunda, click here.
