Diesel Cafe

257 Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144
B&W, 4 per strip, $4.00

Photos: June 2, 2005
Last visit: May 1, 2025

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Diesel is the quintessential Somerville cafe, with delicious food, great coffee, and friendly staff. The comfy booths and bar seating don't hurt, and in early 2005, Diesel blew out the back wall and doubled their size. Around this time, they also put in the photobooth, which fits right in amongst the pool tables, fire hydrants, and motorized memorabilia. The garage door at the front of the cafe is open all summer, and customers walk right in off the street, careful not to trip on the dozens of laptop cords that criss-cross the floor.

The photobooth was turning out pretty dark photos, so leaving the rear curtain off and letting the backlight shine was essential for getting a decent photo. Is $4 the new $3? Let's hope not.

UPDATE 6/25/24: Lydia visited Diesel and while the booth is still in place, it was not working, and staff didn't know when it would be fixed.

UPDATE 5/1/25: We heard from Angel with this very excited update: "After being broken for TEN YEARS the photobooth at Diesel Cafe in Somerville, MA is back up and running. One strip costs a whopping $8.50 and you pay with a token that you purchase at the cash register. Watch out, it starts taking photos as soon as the token drops. Photos land somewhere between B&W and sepia."

We received an email from Wes a week later, with the following background info: "Hello, I'm happy to report that the booth in Somerville Mass is back up and running! I did a mechanical restoration on the booth for the owners earlier this year and has been up again since the beginning of April."

Thank you, Wes, and everyone who made sure the booth didn't disappear and has been brought back to life. This was one of the first booths I used when I lived in Cambridge, and I'm glad to hear it's now back.

Contributed by Brian, Lydia, Angel, Wes