Silver Skillet Restaurant helps bring billions of dollars to Ga. through films

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - With time comes change, but if you cross over the connector and head down 14th Street toward West Midtown, you will find one place that hasn’t changed in decades - it’s The Silver Skillet Restaurant.

If you grab a seat in one of the booths, you may feel a bit of nostalgia from an era like the 50s or 60s.

“The booths are genuine Naugahyde, you know, with the avocado and terracotta,” said Silver Skillet restaurant owner Teresa Breckenridge.

Breckenridge says the diner is always busy, especially during breakfast time.

“We’re just in a time warp and the customers love that,” she said.

For over 60 years, The Silver Skillet diner has been known for its savory biscuits and the taste of a time period.

“Well, we opened in 1956, back in the day, and then I personally took over in 1988 when my father passed away. So, I’ve been here since,” Breckenridge said.

She went on to describe the features of her restaurant that give it a feel of an era, saying, “This is actually authentic, the boomerang patterns, the windows in the diner are the big shark fin windows that, you know, reach outward.”

However, for filmmakers, it’s not just a quaint place to eat delicious food, it’s also the set of an old-fashioned diner made for the big screen.

“For directors and producers, they come in here, they just go, ‘oh, my God, everything’s ready. We don’t even have to dress it. It’s done.’”

For decades, the Silver Skillet has been serving up the perfect spot for a diner scene in major movies, commercials, and tv shows.

“Well, probably the best-known film that was done was “Remember the Titans” with Denzel Washington. We’ve done “Anchorman 2,” the Hank Aaron story, and recently we also did the Ozarks on Netflix.”

The list of box office hits is almost as long as her list of southern cooking items on her homestyle menu. However, Breckenridge said the diner is not just providing the money-making shots for filmmakers and their crews, it’s also feeding back into Atlanta’s economy.

“We have brought probably $9 billion into Georgia. The people flying in from California, they’re bringing money in, the hotels make money, limousines, taxi drivers, Ubers, whoever transportation is. You’ve got the city of Atlanta making a ton of money because of a lot of these films and movies,” Breckenridge said.

A contribution and a legacy she said she hopes to continue.

“I cannot tell you how happy and proud I am that I’ve been a part of this.”

Breckenridge said she also pays all of her staff their full pay even when they have to shut down the diner for a film, and she hopes to keep attracting more films to Georgia.

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