Philip Seymour Hoffman requested the waiting-for-Tommy booth, Nick recalled. Pierce Brosnan took selfies at the diner in 2014, “where the mighty men of movies have walked,” he wrote on Facebook.

“Goodfellas” would be the first on a long list of films, television shows and ads that have used the diner as a backdrop. So many people knew the place as the “Goodfellas” diner that a few years ago, the Diamantises changed its name to the Goodfellas Diner.

Image The two men who ate at the Goodfellas Diner, then refused to pay their check, are still at large.

Then, on Oct. 1, the two men showed up. They ate and balked at the $31 bill. Ms. Diamantis said she explained how the orders added up.

One of the men went out to their car. The other brought the bill to the register, unpaid, and turned for the door. Mr. Diamantis, who is 83 and still cooks, followed him, as did his wife. She began writing their license number on her order pad.

The man punched Mr. Diamantis in the face and yanked Ms. Diamantis’s pad away, pulling her down the front stairs. He jumped in the car and the men raced away on Rust Street in a Toyota, the police said. The men remain at large.

Ms. Diamantis couldn’t move her left arm. It was broken near her biceps, and hanging too low, her shoulder dislocated. Doctors told her she might need a shoulder replacement, but after surgery, she was left with several pins and a plate in her arm, and a long road of physical therapy.