Mark Amspacher R.I.P.

Mark Amspacher, longtime owner of the downtown Diner, died Monday in Norman Regional Hospital. He was 56.

Services are pending with Havenbrook Funeral Home of Norman.

Mark has owned the Diner since 1996. A popular downtown gathering spot, the restaurant at 212 E Main St., was featured on a segment of the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" in 2009.

Mark was a butcher in Norman and became more interested in food and cooking, he said, and went to work as a manager at The Diner. He came to work one day about 1992 and the door was locked.

"The guys who hired me forgot to pay their taxes," Amspacher said.

An attorney that ate breakfast at the diner almost every day called Amspacher and told him he would do the legal work if Amspacher would buy the diner and open the doors.

The Diner hasn't changed much over the years, Amspacher said, and he tries to keep it looking the way it did.

Vinyl booths (10) with Formica table tops and 10 stools line the Formica counter for a total of 50 seats.
Best known for his award-winning chili, Mark also prepares a chocolate chili, which is a staple at the annual Chocolate Festival in Norman. Bowls of it were served Saturday at this year's event.

He won the state's chili championship cookoff two years running before they asked him to retire and serve as a judge.

Raised in and around a south Norman grocery and deli owned for years by his family, Mark also trained under chefs from the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, N.Y. He worked as a chef in restaurants in Oklahoma City and Norman before buying the Diner in 1996.