Baltimore is all about the Orioles and Old Bay seasoning, but they also have a soft spot for a childhood favorite: PEZ. Part restaurant and part museum, Papermoon Diner has been a favorite in the city’s Charles Village for decades. It’s close to the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the diner is a work of art itself. The walls, each painted a different vivid color, are lined with over 1,500 PEZ dispensers that will keep you captivated all afternoon long. PEZ, which was actually developed as a smoking deterrent in 1927, got sweeter as the years went by and became the cutest way to eat candies. The precious candy holders are protected by glass and surrounded by dozens of other rare, nostalgic, collectibles.
Ever since 1994, owner Un Kim has been filling her West Baltimore diner with anything interesting she can get her hands on. She appeals to Baltimore’s love of crab cakes with gooey crab melts and crab Benedict, but it’s all about the decor. David Briskie, her pal and designer, helped bring her creative vision to life. The best part about Kim’s diner is that it’s constantly changing. Every time you pop in for a bacon milkshake (yes, bacon) and vanilla custard French toast, you’ll spot something new on display. Whether that’s a decrepit mannequin welcoming you or a rare Thor PEZ dispenser watching you eat your pancakes, you’ll never be lonely at Papermoon Diner.
Your eyes will never stop wandering at Papermoon Diner
Few have Kim beat, but the Guinness World Records awards Brain Trauman with the largest collection of PEZ dispensers – 6,481. Still, Papermoon Diner’s collection is impressive. Kim and Briskie have been hoarding the coveted dispensers for decades, and oftentimes they just land in their lap. There’s a camaraderie among collectors. Equally passionate folks get giddy at the sight of a shared obsession and are often eager to share. Regulars will head straight to Papermoon after their annual spring cleaning, gifting toys and oddities, and an actual PEZ manufacturing CEO even donated his private collection after visiting the diner.
The PEZ collection is just one tiny fragment of the Papermoon diner. Every last inch is decked out in vintage memorabilia; the wackier the better. Aside from the show-stopping PEZ collection, you’ll find horse-riding babies suspended from the sky, chic green mannequins in Medieval chain wear, and an army of toys that could take on Lotso’s Gang. As much as Kim adores serving imaginative food to the community, she might enjoy watching them take in all the eclectic decor even more. It’s like a non-stop treasure hunt for Kim and Briskie, and it keeps the customers busy. As Kim told The Baltimore Sun back in 2015, “We change it all the time. For us, this is living art, functioning art. We polish it, change it, take care of it.”
