“I walk in there and they say, ‘Hi, Sharon,’” said Ms. Lash, 65. “I know the waiters’ voices.”

The diner and the building for the blind appeared at about the same time — nearly four decades ago — and have been entwined ever since. The diner opened around 1978 in a handsome brick building that had once been home to the Traffic Cafeteria (the building still bears the name). Originally called City Diner, it became the Malibu Diner around 1981. Selis Manor, which was built by a blind newsdealer named Irving M. Selis, opened in 1980.

Every day, a few dozen residents walk from Selis Manor to the Malibu for breakfast, or for a lunch special, many with their dogs. There’s a system to serve blind patrons, said a waiter, George Stratis. If a server shouts “no mirando,” or “not seeing,” the Spanish-speaking kitchen staff knows to chop up an order, put dressing on a salad, even sprinkle salt and pepper. “They know to cut it into small pieces so they can eat it,” Mr. Stratis said.

Ms. Lash said the help is welcome. Many people who were born blind or lost their sight as babies did not learn how to neatly chop food, she said. “I can do it,” she added, “But if the Malibu will do it, why should I refuse?”

Ms. Lash is among the diner’s longtime regulars, having moved in to Selis Manor not long after it opened. She was born in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and has been blind since infancy. She attended a high school for the blind in the Bronx.