Greek immigrant Nick Barakos and his wife Angie came to the United States in 1967 from Platanos, a small village, and unlike many others from Greece didn’t pick a big city in which to settle an open a business.

Their Cross Keys Diner is in New Oxford, Pennsylvania, with a population of 2,014 but at times it seemed like there were more than that in the eating place that became an institution.

Now it’s closing, not because of the COVID-19 pandemic but 50 years was enough for the couple and family, preferring retirement to the daily rigors of running such as popular eating place, said The Evening Sun.

It still “has vibrant blue booths and bright pink counters, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and crispy bacon that make Cross Keys scream ‘classic American diner,’” the paper said, adding: “One foot in the door and you’re transported back in time.”

In 1971, Barakos and his brother-in-law Nick Papatsounis leased the original Cross Keys Diner, a box car building,,and in 1976 Barakos, his brother John, and Papatsounis built a new restaurant on the spot, adding a hotel too.