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SCRANTON — Linda Smith has been in the restaurant business for 35 years. Her once-successful diner, Linda Kay’s, experienced hard times in a slumping economy, but she recently got a helping hand from the Food Network.

Linda Kay’s is the featured diner on Feb. 12’s “American Diner Revival,” starring renovation expert Ty Pennington and chef Amanda Freitag. The show rallies communities to renovate diners while rethinking the menu. The episode airs at 8:30 p.m. and although Smith couldn’t say much about the television experience, she said the process was rewarding professionally and personally.

At 26, Smith opened her first diner with $4,000 to her name. She’d earn $70 or $80 a day, but eventually the business took off. Twelve years ago, she moved into a bigger space.

“We were doing fabulous the first two to three years we opened,” Smith said. “I had to borrow from every friend and family member I had to get this place, and I had over $65,000 paid back the first year. Unfortunately, as soon as I got the money paid back, the economy went south, and after that we were doing half of what we did.”

The diner’s customer base is loyal, Smith said, but as expenses outweighed income, the business began to struggle.

“I don’t know if I would have ever closed the doors, because I’m not a very materialistic person, but there were a lot of mornings I got up and wanted to,” Smith said.

Finding out she was selected for “American Diner Revival” was a surprise.

“It was my fiance who went ahead and applied,” Smith said. “I had no knowledge of it, and I had no knowledge of what went on, until I, like everyone else got to see the reveal.

The reveal goes public Feb. 12 and, Smith said the renovation was a community effort with Scranton residents and customers volunteering to help.

“It was not only great for me,” Smith said. “It was great, because the whole community got to get shaken up a little bit. Everybody was excited about it, and still is.”

Smith said the buzz around the show has ignited the neighborhood, brought in new customers and brought back old customers who weren’t aware of her relocation 12 years ago. Before moving to her current location at 1809 Sanderson Ave., Scranton, she had a small place on New York Street in Scranton.

“The nicest part about it for me, as much as I appreciated getting all this stuff done, I appreciate the fact that it involved my customers,” Smith said. “Ty Pennington and Amanda are not only very professional, they are real people. A lot of times when you watch a show you think it’s just their job. Ty goes to any extreme to do what he says he’s going to do. He’s also very down to earth and was very friendly to anyone who wanted to talk to him. They both were.”

Smith said she felt respected as a person and as a professional throughout the process. Freitag would go beyond her duties at the show and help Smith with recipes she was curious about.

“They did a tremendous job here,” Smith said. “All of this happening to us was such a great boost for us. Anyone in this business can use any help they can get, especially with the economy the way it’s been.”

Beyond her appreciation for the genuine nature of the show, Smith has gratitude for what the process did for her family.

“They actually wrote me letters about how proud they are of how I raised them,” Smith said. “For the first time I heard how important I was to my kids, and how proud they were of me. All the years raising them, I might have thought I never gave them enough or never did enough, and the show brought out all those emotions about how proud they were of me and how I raised them by myself. It was really emotional for everybody, and it brought everyone that much closer.”

Ty Pennington and Amanda Freitag getting ready for the makeover on “American Diner Revival.”
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_DinerRevival1.jpg.optimal.jpgTy Pennington and Amanda Freitag getting ready for the makeover on “American Diner Revival.” Submitted photos

Linda Smith will be the featured business owner on an episode of “American Diner Revival,” which will air at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 12.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_LindayKay1.jpg.optimal.jpgLinda Smith will be the featured business owner on an episode of “American Diner Revival,” which will air at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 12. Submitted photos

Linda Smith at work in her kitchen in 1984, before opening Linda Kay’s Diner, which will be featured on “American Diner Revival” on the Food Network.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_LindaKay2.jpg.optimal.jpgLinda Smith at work in her kitchen in 1984, before opening Linda Kay’s Diner, which will be featured on “American Diner Revival” on the Food Network. Submitted photos
Linda Kay’s gets help from Food Network

By Matt Mattei

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Linda Kay’s will hold an invitation only viewing party at 7 p.m. Feb. 12. Food will be served prior to the airing of “American Diner Revival” at 8:30 p.m. The diner is expecting a full house of customers and friends to celebrate its network television debut.

Reach Matt Mattei at 570-991-6651 or Twitter@TLArts