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Tommy Custren had just unlocked the doors and was in the kitchen making a bagel when he heard the "boom."

"It sounded like something hit the roof," Custren, a manager at said Thursday in the popular eatery's kitchen, as cooks shuffled pancakes, eggs and creamed chipped beef from griddle to plate. "The driver side door was up against the two glass doors."

The "boom," as it turned out, was the sound of a car crashing through the doors and into the diner's vestibule about five minutes after Custren opened at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.  

Horsham Fire Marshal George Fida said the driver - who was not injured in the crash - was traveling southbound on Route 611 when, somewhere in the vicinity of County Line Road, she had a seizure and lost control of her car. 

"She ended up continuing southbound in the northbound lanes," Fida said. "Jumped the curb and came right into the Red Lion Diner lobby."

Luckily, Fida said nobody was in the lobby, or in the vehicle's direct path. Custren said that besides himself, two waitresses and a lone customer - who ordered the bagel Custren was  in the midst of preparing - were the only occupants of the building. 

So, instead of hustling through the diner's typically busy breakfast rush, Gus Maris, one of the owners of the family-owned restaurant, said they closed Wednesday to make necessary repairs.

An engineer was brought out to determine if the building was structurally sound, which Maris said it was. Ranieri Construction followed soon after.

According to Ray Tolton, who was onsite working with a Ranieri crew on Thursday, the contractors had to replace ceilings and walls in the diner's lobby area, build a temporary partition, replace stucco and broken tiles and install three new doors. He said the work would most likely continue for about a week, depending on how quickly new doors could be on hand. 

The vestibule area is closed off from the main dining room. So, even though the lobby is open to the elements while the crews work, diners are safeguarded from the cold. Patrons can enter and exit from another set of double doors on the other side of the parking lot. 

Custren and Maris said it's too early to know how much the repairs will cost. Most, they said, will be covered by insurance.

"The loss for the day - that's going to be harder to get back," Custren said. "We're busy all day. We lost the whole day."

Maris said it could have been worse.

"We could've lost a few days," he said. "The important thing is that nobody was hurt."