The prefabricated restaurant section of the Tastes 29 Diner was completely constructed at the Mountain View Diner Company shop site at Singac in northern New Jersey. All exterior and interior features, including the back bar kitchen equipment, were installed before shipment of the structure to the present site. Shipment of this particular model was accomplished by truck and trailer. This Mountain view Diner postdates split construction, a method developed by Paramount Diners in 1941, that permitted diners to be built in two parts, shipped separately, and attached together onsite. The Tastes 29 Diner, a single unit, was not designed to be self-sufficient. It had to be complemented by a rear addition for supplemental kitchen facilities and storage. As is the case with the Tastes 29 Diner, the built-on-site structure looks utilitarian when compared to the elaborate design of the factory-constructed restaurant section.
The diner has an aluminum monitor roof on the front that is painted dark green, and a standing-seam aluminum shed-style roof over the. addition. The rounded monitor roof relates to roof designs of railcars and trolleys, but this particular version in simplified, as it is without clerestory windows or vents. This literal allusion to the trolley roof shape an diners began to disappear during the late 1940s. A stainless steel band functions as a cornice, with red and green neon tubes highlighting the transition area between the monitor roof and the extended blue and white aluminum awnings. These permanent awnings were not original to this model and were probably added in the early 1950s.
The diner's exterior walls are varied in texture, pattern, and material, but they maintain a color scheme of blue, white, and silver steel. The facade is organized in a symmetrical pattern with the restaurant entry as the central motif. The door is flanked by double window units that have a fixed pane of clear glass with translucent textured glass transoms above. Both side elevations have one double-window unit. Each window unit is emphasized beneath by a unique panel with cobalt blue porcelain enamel tubes that alternate with flat, highly-polished, stainless steel vertical strips. These decorative wall panels are one piece, but they create an impression of vertical divisions, a feature that successfully strikes a balance with the horizontal articulation of the large window units. The front corners of the diner are dramatically accented by curved glass brick walls (15 bricks wide by 10 bricks high) atop molded polished stainless steel prows. The main entry is embellished by glass brick sidelights (4 bricks wide by 10 bricks high) set into ornamental stainless steel panels, and the blue heavy sheet metal door has a lozenge-shaped window with a stylized horizontal bar handle. Small black lanterns that evoke ocean liner deck lights flank the entry.
The Tastes 29 Diner appears to capture a near immobilization of nobility. This beautifully streamlined image would have spoken of modern epicurean cleanliness and convenience to those passing in their Chrysler Air Flows and Lincoln Zephyrs. The unusual prows seem to distribute reflected light from any angle of observation: this diner was hard to miss in the bright Virginia summer sun and by the time the sheen had caught the passing motorist's eye, they would have seen the words "air conditioning" on the large sign, a plus for the hot and hungry traveler. While the addition of the awnings diminish the effect of the glass block expanse at the corners, the awnings give a Prairie School flavor to the diner by extending from the slope of the monitor roof Is corner, creating the illusion of a wide low-pitched roof, and resulting in an architectural gesture that emphasizes the horizontality and successfully echoes the reach of the prows. Additionally, the lifted awning over the entry showcases the stylized door and its glass brick sidelights.