BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Open 24/ on West 23rd Street and happy to serve breakfast, lunch or dinner in the middle of the day or the dead of night, Chelsea’s Malibu Diner delivers all of the calling cards the comfort food crowd has come to expect.

Situated in a glass display case just beyond the front door, a charismatic collection of cookies, cakes, pies, and cannoli tempt passersby. Straight ahead, left and right respectively, you’ll see solo patrons seated on classic, luncheon counter-type stools, while parties of two occupy a row of snug booths hugging the wall. In the middle is a long walkway so lean it compels customers and staff to do their traversing single-file style. The trip is over soon enough, though, as you arrive at the spacious back section–where the optical illusion achieved by strategically placed mirrors suggests a room of never-ending depth.

But all things must come to an end. And so, come Sunday, February 22, change with a side order of upheaval is on the menu for the diner that’s been at 163 West 23rd Street since 1978. (Back then, it was known as City Diner; three years later, a rebranding established it as the Malibu.) A prohibitively large rent increase is said to be the individually wrapped plastic straw that broke the camel’s back. And that’s bad news for an extremely loyal crowd from just a few doors down–the visually impaired tenants at Selis Manor for the Blind, whose Malibu customer base is so strong that management commissioned menus in Braille.

That’s not the only time Malibu recalibrated for the good of the neighborhood. In September 2016–after a terrorist’s bomb exploded about halfway between Malibu and Selis–most of the 20+ businesses on that block were closed for days. But Malibu remained open, serving Selis Manor residents on site or by delivering to their front door. Similarly, when the pandemic began to wane, Malibu was among the first businesses in the neighborhood to resume regular hours (which for them meant, and continues to mean, “Open 24 hours”).

Now, in the ultimate expression of commitment to Chelsea, Malibu will relocate to a new ground floor space just a few blocks away, at West 20th Street and Seventh Ave.

Malibu’s morning shift manager (call him “Ishmael”) confirmed the relocation scenario earlier this week, when Chelsea Community News stopped by the diner for one last order of “Blueberry Pancakes a la West 23rd,” along with a free refill                                                                           of that good, black coffee. Ishmael said they hope to have the new location up and running by late April or early May, with a good amount of the current staff expected to return. Sharing one final tidbit, the morning manager said that use of second floor space that’s part of the rental price will be used to create more dining space (and elbow room) than the current floor plan.

Want to have one final bacon, eggs, and OJ breakfast as your last supper at Malibu’s West 23rd Street location? You’ve got until the doors close for good on Sunday, February 22. Preview the wide-ranging menu by paying a visit  to malibudinernyc.nyc.

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