From Diner to Destination: Rural Revival in Appalachian Ohio

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Across rural America, small-town diners serve as more than places to eat—they are one of the last social commons where neighbors gather and community endures. From Diner to Destination follows the story of the Triple Nickel Diner in Chesterhill, Ohio, a women-led restaurant that has become a hub for local resilience. When invited to reopen a shuttered restaurant in nearby Amesville, the owners faced the challenge of reviving not just a business but an entire community’s spirit.

Through photography and short documentary video, I am exploring how local food systems, entrepreneurship, and everyday acts of care sustain rural life in Appalachia. The work focuses on the dignity of labor, the rhythms of small-town living, and the interdependence of farmers, cooks, and residents. My goal is to create a human-scale portrait of community renewal that challenges stereotypes of rural America as static or defeated.

Principal Photography Locations

Chesterhill, Ohio

Chesterhill (pop. ~276) sits in Morgan County and was founded in 1834 by Quakers who supported the Underground Railroad. Once a small trading post and farming town, it now hosts the Chesterhill Produce Auction, a key link between Amish growers and local markets. The Triple Nickel Diner has become one of its most recognizable landmarks and gathering spaces.

Amesville, Ohio

Amesville (pop. ~170) in Athens County is known for its cooperative spirit—home to the first municipal solar-power initiative in Ohio and a long tradition of grassroots community projects. The town’s invitation for the Triple Nickel team to reopen its shuttered restaurant reflects an effort to revive its downtown economy and rebuild local food access after years of business decline.

Main Characters

Rosie Berardi

Rosie Berardi is the co-owner and operator of the Triple Nickel Diner in Chesterhill, Ohio. Through her mother’s ancestral connection with Morgan County, Rosie helped build the diner into a cornerstone of the local food network, sourcing ingredients from nearby farms and fostering a sense of community through hospitality. Under her leadership, the diner has become both a gathering place and a model for rural entrepreneurship in Appalachian Ohio.

Kathy Strode

Kathy Strode co-founded the Triple Nickel Diner in 2016 alongside her daughter, Rosie Berardi. A retired nurse with a passion for good food and community, she transformed a vacant building (which used to be the village’s meat locker) on State Route 555 into a welcoming space for locals and travelers alike. Though now retired from day-to-day operations, her vision and dedication continue to shape the diner’s identity and its legacy of resilience in Morgan County.

Preview (Work-in-Progress)

A gravel road runs through the woods near the ancestral home of Triple Nickel Diner co-founder Kathy Strode in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. The house, once owned by Strode’s grandfather, was later restored by her nephew, Dan Strode, who manages Goshen Run Farms, which supplies beef to the diner.

Stanley Strode, right, the uncle of Triple Nickel Diner co-owner Rosie Berardi, arrives with his friend Bob Stout for breakfast in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2025. Strode, a farmer who specializes in pork production, supplies the diner with pork, bacon, and sausage.

Rosie Berardi, co-owner and co-founder of the Triple Nickel Diner, chats with her aunt, Barbara Fischer, one of the elders of the village, during a meal break at the diner in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. Berardi usually eats only at the end of her shifts.

Rancher Duane King's buffalos graze on pasture on the "death row" section of his farmland in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Saturday, June 7, 2025. King, a family friend and former neighbor of Triple Nickel Diner's co-founder Kathy Strode, exclusively supplies the diner with bison meat.

Pat Strode, a farmhand and the wife of manager Dan Strode of Goshen Run Farms, opens a gate to a pasture before feeding cows on the farm between Chesterhill and Stockport, Ohio, on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Strode said she previously worked at the local Dollar Family store, one of several dollar stores spreading through the region as grocery stores close.

Flies gather near the eye of a cow grazing on pasture at Goshen Run Farms between Chesterhill and Stockport, Ohio, on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

Co-founder Kathy Strode harvests peppers from her garden behind the Triple Nickel Diner in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. Strode said her harvest season was shorter this year because of unpredictable summer weather, with heavy rains preceding drought.

People react while bidding for fresh produce at the Chesterhill Produce Auction in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Thursday, June 12, 2025. Founded in 2004 by Jean and Marvin Konkle, the auction began under a tent the following year to connect local growers with buyers and strengthen the region’s food economy. The Triple Nickel Diner sources part of its produce from the auction as part of its seven-mile local food sourcing strategy.

Co-founder Kathy Strode loads fresh produce into her truck bed as her grandson, Henry Schulz, looks on at the end of a produce auction at the Chesterhill Produce Auction in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2025. Strode said she has been buying more produce from Amish farmers at the auction because heavy rains and drought during her usual summer planting season have affected the garden behind the diner.

Chef and new co-owner Taro Tamaki brings a dish of fries to the pass in the kitchen of the Triple Nickel Diner in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Thursday, May 22, 2025. Co-founder Kathy Strode said she told her daughter, Rosie Berardi, to make a role for the Dayton transplant years ago, even though the diner did not need more staff, saying she felt an immediate affinity for him. Tamaki became a co-owner after Strode retired in January 2025.

Customers eat lunch at the Triple Nickel Diner in Chesterhill, Ohio, on Friday, Sept. 2, 2025. According to co-founder Rosie Berardi, the diner sees its busiest season in summer and fall, when motorcyclists from around the country ride along State Route 555, part of the scenic Ohio Windy 9, and stop in for a meal.

An aerial view shows the village of Chesterhill, Ohio, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2025. The Triple Nickel Diner (bottom right) sits at the end of High Street, intersecting the village’s Main Street, and is easy to miss from State Route 555 except for its sign along Main Street.

Grant Usage

The Dave Martin Student Grant would support the completion and community presentation of From Diner to Destination during the final production phase (November 2025 – April 2026). The funds will help cover essential out-of-pocket costs that ensure the project reaches the communities it represents.

The $1,000 grant will be used for:

Travel and mileage between Athens and Morgan counties ($250) to complete follow-up interviews and visual documentation.
Audio and lighting rentals for interior scenes and community events ($200).
Post-production expenses, including transcription and editing software fees ($150).
Community exhibition materials ($400) to print a modest set of images and stage small, low-cost exhibitions and screenings. The whole show will appear in Chesterhill and Amesville, with smaller pop-up displays or screenings in Athens and McConnelsville using existing community spaces and shared university resources.

By designing scalable events and reusing equipment and venues, the grant will directly connect the finished project to the towns that inspired it. Each location will host at least one public screening or print display to encourage regional conversation about food access, entrepreneurship, and rural renewal.

For screenings or press, email loriene.perera@gmail.com