Love diners! We visited many on our annual summer trip from NO to Maine and back. Two standouts were the Seaplane diner in Providence, RI and Martha's diner (in a strip mall) in Ellsworth, ME. Sometimes when you are expecting the usual fare, you are startled out of your morning reverie by the cooking of someone who really cares! Also, being from NO, don't see much corned beef hash on menus here, so always look forward to that. Also, scrapple in PA! And of course, blueberry pancakes in ME.
Neptune Diner, Astoria, NYC. Still in business.
The Melrose Diner is a classic in South Philadelphia. Their “butter cake” is a national treasure. And the fried eggs with pork roll at the Point Diner in Somers Point at the South Jersey shore should be enshrined in the Smithsonian.
Another reason the diners in Paramus were so popular: they were on the way to and from the cemeteries! People coming from NYC to the ones in NJ were hungry and after they left the cemetery, same thing. Win win.
Re: Holly’s. There was a neon sign outdoors in the parking lot that had a chicken at different stages until it was shown cooked and ready to eat! Their fried chicken in a basket was famous and delicious but looking back, and knowing what I know now-that sign was disgusting. Their fried shrimp was equally delicious, but so was everything else. I loved going there. The place is long gone.
(The owners gave me some food for my wedding, but I can’t remember what it was).
My parents used to go to the Red Oak Diner in Ft Lee NJ all the time, sometimes three times a day! Everyone knew who they were, of course, and even named a salad after them (they liked lots of onions on them). This was in the eighties. Before that it was Holly’s in Hackensack when I was a young kid and teenager. They had the best food around! It was also the place where kids hung out on date night Saturday night (sadly, that didn’t include me). The menus were enormous, too.
I don’t miss that kind of place at all: so much food.
Next week I'll be taking a road trip with a friend and we'll be stopping at Zip's. It's a dinner in Dayville, CT and it moved to its 'new' location in 1954. You can't miss its giant EAT sign
So many dinners, so little time
1
For decades and decades, kids going back and forth from the NY metro area to upstate colleges stopped at the infamous Roscoe Diner on Rte 17. It was tradition! We’re in Nevada now but I bet it’s still there thriving!
1
Diners are my favorite. True Americana at its best no matter what city you visit.
I learned more about my beloved diners in this illustrated story than in my entire life up to now. I reviewed the Georgia Diner in Queens in the 90s for the Queens Tribune. I brought two friends to help me get a decent cross section of the offerings!
1
Been overseas since the pandemic started. Oh lordy I miss diners.
5
Beautiful story.
1
Sad to think there is no more Shalimar in my hood.
2
What a great feature.
4
Just to note: $1.95 in 1957 is the equivalent to $18.14, according to the US Dep't of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. So, not really that cheap, comparatively.
Greek diners in NYC have been my biggest disappointment since moving here. How you call yourself a diner withiut having a single decent fried potato item on the menu is beyond me.
5
@Joe C
What? ! Not even hash browns?
1
I grew up slinging hash, so to speak, so I have another theory. Cisco. Add all the good-tasting bad stuff -- fat, sugar, salt -- add preservatives, freeze in some cases and voila -- with storage space suddenly you can have a 20 page menu.
4
I miss the table-side jukeboxes at the Jersey diners I grew up with.
8
I traveled to the Catskills last summer for the first time and was thrilled to see shiny silver diners lining the roadways! It felt like being in a movie from the 1950s. We ate in one, which indeed had a very long menu.
5
Nice illustrations!
5
El Greco in Sheepshead Bay was great! until it wasnt there any more :(
1
How could you write a diner story without the jargon used back in the day (early through mid-20th century), when waitresses would call out things like, "two lookin' at ya" (eggs, sunny side up) or "a pair a shingles, greased" (buttered toast). In the diner my mother ran in Pyote, Texas, waffles were referred to as "cakes, run over by a tractor." Bacon was "striped pig meat."
10
How can anyone write about diners without mentioning the amazing revolving cake displays? Every first class diner in New Jersey has one with foot tall chocolate and carrot cakes. Did I mention the frizbee sized cookies?
88
or the refrigerated revolving pie case with 2 dozen pies in it. (And the occasional drunk who would bump into the pie case, take a step or 2 back & then say, "excuse me" to the pie case.)
10
This phenomenon was satirized last year by the Saturday Night Live sketch Diner Lobster. The Atlantic — hailing it "the best Saturday Night Live sketch in ages" — commented back then: "It was a hilarious mix of a specific New York City observation (the endless length of diner menus) and theater marginalia"
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/04/consider-the-diner-lobster/558182/
1
I'm proud Jersey girl and no snob.
I'm also a great cook, and know good food, and I got to say, most of the hash they're slinging in diners really stinks.
From the gloppy, yellow-tinged 'gravy' on your hot turkey sandwich, to the insipid pile of pale pancakes...from the car tire sized tasteless toasted bagels, to the distinctly fishy (that's a bad thing) smelling flounder francaise - there's no denying the truth.
People who like diner food like BAD food.
3
@CR
There is no way a food establishment can make everything well on those bible sized menus. Rather eat at a place where they have 10 choices and they know how to prepare everything on the menu expertly.
But you can't go wrong with a Taylor ham and egg on a hard roll. And a table side jukebox. And maybe some rice pudding with cinnamon. Can't find it in Colorado where I've lived for almost 40 years. And they're even hard to find in NY or NJ where I grew up.
Country Fried Steak, Mac and Cheese and 'nana Pudding are ethnic food?
At the roadsides I never had a really good dinner or a really bad breakfast.
John Steinbeck
13
Funny you should mention him (that quote is from Travels with Charley I believe). There is a scene from In Dubious Battle where the main character orders a burger from an old-style lunch wagon late at night; the description of the smell of the onions being cooked in the hamburger grease never fails to make me hungry.
6
I always wondered why so many diners looked like railroad passenger cars.
Now I know.
Sometimes the NY Times can have good articles. Not often enough, but sometimes.
3
So, you're telling me, no more "Chee-burger! Pepsi!" ?
2
Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger! Chips, no fries . No Coke , Pepsi!
2
if in Grand Rapids, you have to check out Wolfgangs!!!!!! (no relation to wolfgang puck)
in Atlanta, few classic diners left, they have all been replaced by hipsterish slightly upscaled foodie hotspots; which is great if you are a foodie but lousy if you are a classic diner kind of person.
1
Comic Sans walks into a diner .....A waitress looks up from the Dear Abby column, and focusing through her horn-rimmed glasses she shouts ""Hey, we don't allow your type in here ! "
She then turns and soothes, "More ketchup, hon?" to a respectable customer.
1
Alas, shipped off again.
2
Oh my, the nostalgia.
Manufactured 'Silk City' diners. A lot of stainless steel. The refrigerated rotating pie case.
Individual jukeboxes at every booth; the main unit flipping 45 rpm records. Patsy Cline to Michael Jackson, sides A and B.
Does anyone remember the Queen of the Valley Diner on Penn Avenue outside Reading, PA? Named after a train that ran along the tracks behind it. Do trains still have names?
Capitalism at its best. Nothing between the owner and the customer.
15
I know this is the *New York* Times, but how can you write an article about diners without mentioning the state across the river, New Jersey, which is the diner capital of the world, home to over 500 diners! I don't frequent them very often, but when you're craving pancakes at 11pm or a bagel and lox at midnight, a diner is the go-to place.
6
My mother met my father in a diner where he was working in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1938. And one of my earliest memories is having a dish of vanilla ice cream at the Royal Diner in Leominster.
Stainless steel, marble counter-tops, the always-hot grill at the ready, juke boxes, hefty coffee cups, swivel stools, the regulars who sat in the same place every day....
Ah, the memories!
4
Remembering two of my favorite diners of the 1950s. Short menus. Small plates.
And a reminder. 40% of all food eaten in the US is wasted. If you go to a diner and have leftovers, get a box for them and give them to someone homeless, please.
7
i am not really a diner person, i am gluten-free for medical reasons, and also a very healthy eater overall (plant-based and all that). my local uws diner has a gluten-free menu. it is not just a list of g-f options, it is a well-rounded menu by itself, and they take it seriously. the staff is super nice, always recognizes i order off the g-f menu before i sit down, and dont make me feel weird about it. even though i am not there all the time, they definitely get my dollars when i need a break from the land of salads (they offer a mean cobb though).
My favorite diner menu of all time was the one in 'My Cousin Vinny'
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
11
What great artwork and a fun way to start the week! I always wondered about diner menus, now I know the reason, thanks.
I know all the diners in my area and appreciate that they are still around. Unlike trendy restaurants that change with the tide, diners remain true to serving the same standbys we all have come to count on. God bless diners.
41
I like diners. Quick, friendly and economical. But when I see the huge menus with a large variety of entries, many touted as "chef's specials", including fish, and know that those same specials were on the menu yesterday, the day before yesterday. etc. and will be on the menu tomorrow, the day after that. etc., I wonder about the freshness of the food. That is why I usually stick with ordering either omelet or a salad. There's more turnover in the kitchen with eggs and greens.
19
My family has been in the printing business since 1932. From the seventies through the nineties we typeset and printed many of the diner menus in the NYC, NJ area which came to us through menu brokers.
I remember vividly that when the menu broker would come in with a new diner menu to design it would be often be based on another diner that was usually a friend or relative.
They often specified that they wanted to use the Souvenir typeface which the Greek diner owners jokingly called Souvlaki and no matter how hard they tried to reduce the size of the menu they just couldn’t help but add more items. They all wanted the same boxes around the kids menu offering “a Rocket Burger” or some variation and liked the border style around the menu they was often found on the Greek diner coffee cups.
Inevitably they would become “books” as each diner saw what their friends/competition were offering and they added anything new so not to be outdone. Every new diet was represented as were any newly popular style of cooking such as panini’s and smoothies.
They would always complain about the cost of their massive menus but they just couldn’t find a way to eliminate anything and I think it was really just the diner equivalent of an arms race.
49
Great story! We can’t afford to have a menu gap!
5
I've been a diner fan for literally decades (I even own a huge number of photo books about diners [including several by Brian Butko and a few by Richard Gutman, who were consulted for this]), and NYC & environs are a diner-lover's heaven. My husband & I have several favorite diners in Manhattan and elsewhere - and whenever we go out to eat, it's almost always to a diner. We love the ambiance, the huge menus, and (to our detriment) the typically-generous portions. Our very favorite diner in Manhattan is the Good Stuff Diner; it's open 24 hours/day, it's a good size, they're great about accommodating (small) groups, the food is delicious (as an aside, their bread pudding is the world's greatest), the menu is *huge* (no surprise) and the servers are really pleasant.
55
Good Stuff is great! Shout out to John’s Coffee Shop in Midtown East and Neil’s Coffee Shop on the UES also.
18
@Susan L. would love to hear your favorites!
3
@Susan L. I was told by a diner owner in NYC that the reason they stay open 24 hours is that they can't otherwise stay afloat. "If we're not full all 24 hours, we won't be able to pay the rent'. I'm very sorry to see so many of them go and replaced by - what? Certainly nothing that enhances the community and street life as much as they do.
3
If you want a great soundtrack for reading this excellent little piece, here's Martin Sexton's "Diner" with lyrics. A great song playing tribute to the history of the diner!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuF5Hgq_9yY
2
I disagree with your cartoon showing Zeus as the source of the menu problem; I think it was the goddess Appetitie.
(Oh, come on, spelchek. You know that was a good one.)
19
The Juicy Pig in the college town Denton, Texas. The owners showed their family vacation slides by projecting them on the outside wall of the building next door every night. The was a little window w/ a noisy old projector. As you came in the front door, the only door actually, there was a hand painting sign saying “Duncan Hines ain’t been here yet”. The perfect after school or Saturday night skating stop. For me,curly fries, a tuna melt and Dr Pepper w/ a shot of cherry syrup. Recently someone borrowed the name and opened a new Juicy Pig: Duncan Hines still ain’t been there !
5
If you're here, you may be interested in "Soda Fountain Luncheonette Drinks and Recipes" by Louis P. DeGouy, a 1940 guide to the drinks and sandwiches of that era. An edited, illustrated edition, "Luncheonette", was published in 1989.
DeGouy was trained by Escouffier, and his attention to detail and presentation is obvious. The 1989 edition, edited by Patricia Kelly and illustrated by Carol Vidinghoff, is more available, and pure pleasure.
3
The huge menu at the Mt. Kisco Diner in Mt. Kisco, NY, and how they get everything right!
1
Can you do all the news in this format, please?
14
I understand the need for space, but I wish you could have mentioned the Worcester dining cars. You can still find some of them dotted around the Northeast.
One reason why the diner cars have fallen out of favor is energy costs. Sit-down customers need a pleasantly warm restaurant on cold winter days, and comfortably cool on hot summer days. The old glass and metal construction makes heating and cooling costs quite high, as heat leaks out quickly in the winter and leaks in quickly in summer.
12
I assumed the size of diner menus had to do with the grand size of menus in fancy restaurants, giving the middle class and poorer a taste of the fine life, which fits in the diners adding fancy dining rooms to their lunch counters. Even chains like Schrafft's had huge menus compared to the skimpy ones of today. No, diners cannot cut their menus, or they look incompetent. The sign of accomplishment is in their ability to turn out so many different dishes, something chefs today have lost the ability to do. I would have preferred a detailed written story to a comic book version. My first job was in a Greek-owned diner, the Rainbow Cafe in south Minneapolis, by far the pre-dominant diner in the Twin Cities and the most popular, largest, busiest all-encompassing restaurant. It started as a lunch and breakfast counter, added a building next door full of booths and four-tops, then added an Art Deco cocktail lounge, and a white linen dining room as well. These places always do well when run well. The problem is, the owners complain too much and fail to show the positive sides of the place to their children, who then grow up wanting to do something else. Greeks seem to prefer closing up to selling to anyone else, or having someone outside the family managing.
4
First, I like the way the NYT mixes up its media—print, comics, photo essays etc. For me, it keeps it interesting.
Secondly, most modern establishments are going to smaller menus and most chefs support this. It helps control food waste (keep a million dishes on the menu, have to keep a million ingredients on hand that may spoil). It also helps support a sustainability model—chefs make a few dishes really well and they are able to shop locally, organically, and in season.
I, in no way, think having a limited menu is a bad thing. In fact, we avoid restaurants with overly large menus.
1
FYI, in ancient Pompeii already there were canteens or whatever one wants to call them that catered to working laborers who did not have the facilities or time or money to cook for themselves. Even today, a double hamburger at McD costs me less than its production at home, disregarding the effort involved. (Something to be considered. When it comes to salad or baked potato- Wendy's -- not so much -- altho a handsome baking potato costs at least 99 cents, and Wendy's chili surpasses mine and no leftovers. Did diners replace the taverns of colonial times? How did tea/coffee houses actually function? The history is a great thing.
7
When FourSquare was a thing, I became the mayor of Viand Diner on Broadway and 75th. One early morning Election Day with my kids, before voting, my young kids and I spotted another elected official, Mayor Bloomberg, having breakfast at the diner.
I said, "Good luck in the election today, Mayor."
He seemed nervous, "Thanks, I'll need it."
"I'm voting for you."
My son whispered, "You're not voting for him."
I said, "I guess I am now. Because I told him I would."
That year Bloomberg only won by a small percentage of voters -- had he not gone to breakfast at my diner (and probably many others), I doubt he would've been reelected.
14
@MaryBethC
Viand has the best chicken-egg-lemon soup. It's as good as in a Greek restaurant!
3
Love the format! Easy and quick. Works for this kind of subject.
7
Hmmm ... illustrated tweets ... must pass that thought along to KellyAnne.
1
It's a pity that diners are going the way of Horn & Hardart (a/k/a the Automat). Food in both places was/is wholesome and varied. Hopefully different ethnic owners will succeed in educating American palates in diversity!
5
I'm glad I had a chance to eat at Horn & Hardart before it disappeared. I can't remember what I ate, but the experience was fun.
As the diner disappears, unfortunately so does the institution that ran them; the Great American Waitress. Coming from Europe I marvelled at these women who could simultaneously write down orders with 5 plates stacked on their forearms. Notebook in one hand, pen behind the ear and coffee pot in the other hand they are a model of efficiency and time management no kaizen expert could could hope to match. No cup is left unfilled, no ketchup bottle undelivered.
"You want some pie honey?"
74
@PhilipB Absolutely. Nowadays, a diner is the only place you can get good service. It's probably the only place you can learn proper service, too.
9
Diners are disappearing because, in the end, the owners must make money. I missed many things from my youth years. Life happened.
In addition to increasing the size of their menus, diners also increased their hours, many becoming 24-hour eating joints, where at any time of the day or night you could get anything you wanted, from a grilled cheese sandwich to Hungarian goulash.
5
No way Diners survive the famously stingy Millennials, these people don't buy cars and rather Uber everywhere to save the expense. They will stick to fast foods rather than sitting in a diner where a grilled-cheese sandwich will run them 11 dollars plus tip.
The Diner belongs to a different age, where even the working poor knew how to live and take an appreciation of life. Sitting in a Diner, shooting the breeze with your family and friends, sitting a cozy booth. Diners are not about the food its about the familiarity, knowing the owner, chatting with the wait staff. All of it designed to reduce stress. Diners are like chicken soup for the soul. We knew how to live in the old days, millennials are living a rat life and they are going to drag us down with them.
13
Having grown up in northern New Jersey, I loved the diners for their menus, variety, and their great spinning showcases of pies. Three of my favorites were the Forum Diner in Paramus, the Coach House Diner in Hackensack, and Mastoris Diner in Bordentown.
Good food and plenty of it, and sassy wait-staffs.
16
@Dochoch, Jim's Country Diner was awesome! I used to order Salisbury steak, or maybe a tuna melt. Since I didn't drive at the time, I'll guess the diner was somewhere near Route 130 or Exit 8A. :)
1
@Dochoch, Jim's Country Diner was awesome! I used to order Salisbury steak, open faced turkey sandwich, or maybe a tuna melt. Since I didn't drive at the time, I'll guess the diner was somewhere near Route 130 or Exit 8A. :)
@Dochoch And the Parsonage diner in Edison. 1that was the best!
Just bring me a dish of mussels and pasta in garlic sauce, moussaka, and a plateful of baklava.
6
Can’t help but notice we’ve gone gone full circle: started as railroad cars and now food trucks are trendy. Fun article, thanks!
31
And let's not forget the El Camino, in Socorro, New Mexico. Where my favorite question is, "Red or Green"!
6
Diners are prevalent on Long Island. The tackier the decor, ofttimes the better the food.
16
Lol. I thought it was only me who noticed how mind blowingly long these menus were.
8
What about the waitresses who took no nonsense and worked all hours of the night? I remember one who handled the college crowd at the State Street Diner in Ithaca, NY. "Can I get the pancakes?" - "I don't know, can you?" was her retort!
Remember the TV show 'Alice' - she worked in Mel's Diner? Flo's line was 'Kiss my grits'.
The staff always knew the regulars and made them feel like home. If anyone got out of line, the sassy waitresses put the manners back on them.
38
@gf
Mmm, State Street. The first place I had rice pudding. Remember the black and white cookies?
1
When in Ithaca, we always preferred to eat at a small Chinese restaurant where the grandmother ran the front and watched the grandkids. I remember her touting bok choi, how good it was and, at that time, how expensive.
Of course she would urge us to eat everything on our plates.
Kudos to Mr. Shadmi for the illustrations.
9
Meatloaf sandwich with home fries smothered in pepper gravy! Good Goddess, now I'm ready to die.
4
I love diners! No rush, no fuss!
3
The best thing I’ve read in the times in weeks
3
@Radnyc
I said something similar in these comments.
The large menu allows you to eat there more often without getting menu fatigue. I have a diner like restaurant near me and I don't think I've had the same thing twice, save breakfast perhaps.
8
@Jim Talk about Love All, Serve All.
1
One of the things I miss from leaving my boyhood home of NYC is the lack of the "greek" diners, as we called them in the 1960's and 70's. There was always something on the menu for everyone in your party. The food was good and inexpensive.
I have found outside of the NYC region, the diner is not quite the same. Today's "supersized" version of the diner is The Cheesecake Factory, where it takes a good 10-15 minutes to read through the entire menu. Portions are huge (on my last visit I ordered a side salad that was a meal and a half in itself) and prices are decent.
5
@Bruce, Cheesecake Factory has really good salmon. My family goes to lunch there occasionally, and we always mock the giant platters 'o food. And yet, we go back. :)
1
Moving to Turkey one of the big shockers to me was how each restaurant really only had one specialty and generally very few menu items. If you go to a place for meatballs, that's pretty much all they served (maybe a small salad as well, but that's about it). A place that sells pide (Turkish pizza)? That's it. A kebab place? Hope you're in the mood for kebab because there isn't anything else.
At first I found it disconcerting, but then you realize that what they do, they do INCREDIBLY well; there is no hemming and hawing over the menu wondering what the restaurant does well and what they will potentially ruin.
Newer "American style" restaurants are popping all over Turkey now, complete with expansive menus covering everything from Italian to Mexican, and they all have one unifying theme: most things are fine and nothing is especially good.
19
My family used to go to the Madison Diner in Madison, NJ. I remember their lamb stew and salads with bleu cheese dressing. I have yet to find a place that serves these 2 dishes done as well.
3
This presentation has really brightened my morning. The artwork and the text are first rate: beautiful, interesting, fun!
It’s so nice to see this style of art that has nothing to do with superheroes! With pithy, well-written text.
Brilliantly done! Thank you.
19
A very odd way to run a restaurant. I've been going to diners my entire life. I very rarely order anything other than one or two menu items. It's basically eggs for brunch or disco fries for late night. Maybe a hot sandwich on the odd occasion I'm in a diner for lunch. That's about it. I'm not sure who exactly thought the giant menu was a good idea. I've only seen the practice done well once or twice.
The appeal of most diners to me was cheap food with a decent place to sit. A place where the waiter or waitress is rarely rushing to flip your table. In high school, you could grab a booth for several hours for the cost of a cup of coffee or a soda. No one was pushing you out the door. Just tip well and don't make a racket. It beats standing outside in the cold.
4
I get about 3 things at diners. Eggs, burgers, salad. Much of the rest of their fare is prepared off premises and warmed when you order it. I prefer fresh.
5
@MIKEinNYC That's not so. Most of them have prep kitchens you don't see that prepare the entrees, salads and such, the kitchen you see is for grilling, heating and serving. They may be in the basement, but they have them on premises. And most of them have signs saying, all baking done on premises.
7
Great piece. An example of why I subscribe with the Times and what you won't find circulating on social media.
13
I love everything about diners, the snuggle of the leatherette booths, the bright lighting in the wee-hour darkness, the efficient no-nonsense service and yes, the endless menus. The food? Well you can’t go wrong with a gyro platter; Tzadziki, Steak fries and greek salad included.
22
For fans of diner history, I suggest a trip to Worcester, Mass. That is the town where the idea of converting a “diner car” for the railroad into a pre-fab building originated. In fact, there was a thriving industry in the town manufacturing diners. About town, there are still several of the traditional diners where you can dine.
24
@SG1
And there's a very good art museum in Worcester. Definitely worth the trip.
6
@Auntie Mame And the Oldest Municipal Park in the Country.
1
The diner on Main St. in Waterville, Maine was, in my tender elementary-schoolkid youth, a place of worldly noir-ish sophistication. When I was older and saw 'Nighthawks' by Edward Hopper and read novels by Raymond Chandler, I realized that I had already imagined those people eating pie and drinking coffee in the diner.
The reality was that the patrons were mostly Franco-American millworkers. And the really amazing thing at the time was that the owner actually had a Master's degree in History, and yet -- I believe this was in the late 1950s, early 1960s -- he was running a diner! How could a man throw away his education like that ...
6
He didn’t throw away that education. It “served” him quite well for the rest of his life. Critical thinking, an ability to write, and an understanding of his place in the world. Not bad goals for any education.
18
Lived in NYNY 40 years ago and every time I visit i manage to get a slice of pizza on the street and early breakfast or other
late meal at a diner. Often alone if I can help it.
Sometimes it is hard to do on account of being wined and dined to the most incredible places but a diner in NYC is America . I feel like I am part of Hopper's Nighhawks.
8
"I walked into a breakfast at any time diner, so I ordered French Toast during the Revolution."
My favorite Steve Wright joke. Still makes me chuckle as did this marvelous piece on diners.
On a personal note, our family cemetery is in Clifton, NJ. Sadly, I started going there more than 50 years ago and many, many times subsequently as my folks and various family members died. Where's the cemetery? "Behind the Tick Tock." Says it all....
16
My Great Uncle owned the Tick Tock in Coxsackie, NY. I never knew that was a popular name!
We love diners. Some are great, some are not. I teach my kids to order what you know they do well: breakfast, burgers, sandwiches and salads. We even attended a Bar Mitzvah at a diner. It was great!
I can’t get John Mulvaney’s don’t eat lobster at a diner SNL skit out of my head. It was brilliant.
14
I'm from Jersey and I tell my kids all the time that one of the greatest American inventions is the 24 hour diner. You can get anything at any time. If you're a teen, they let you linger over a bagel and Coke for 2 hours. Same if you're a senior with nothing else to do. My favorite diner in my old neighborhood was knocked down a few years ago, but when the bus passes the empty lot, I still hear people talking about how they miss it.
48
@breakup
I think you've got it. Everybody's welcome, everyone fits in, and not a soul is driven away. It the most democratic institution we've got. Via the Greeks, of course!
Having known a couple of institutions in Connecticut, I also firmly believe that most semi-offical municipal business is - or was - conducted at local diners, usually some time after midnight.
24
i've always liked the idea of diners. the rippling shining silver exterior the stools and booths... but the food is usually bland with about as much integrity as a tv dinner.
but my main complaint about them is the lack of alcohol and on that note i'd like to give a shout out to a place in Durham NC called MONUTS don't know if they consider themselves a diner but it has a diner like ethos they make their own doughnuts and bagels (all excellent ) but the truly great thing about the place is that you can get a pint of local beer with your bagel at 7 in the morning truly civilized!
3
C’mon Dennis, no love for the Americana Diner on Rt 35?
Wrestling with the huge menu at the Hilltop Coach Diner in Queens in the ‘60s, my teenage brain always imagined that there was a gigantic kitchen somewhere underground at some midpoint in New York where giant pneumatic tubes whisked the cooked food to wherever it had been ordered. I couldn’t see how any single diner could have a refrigerator large enough to accommodate the vast array of items on offer.
My favorite diner in Manhattan is still my go-to eatery of choice, not necessarily for the typically basic diner fare but for the friendly, neighborhood atmosphere and the unpretentious service where, no matter what you ask for, the answer is always: “sure.” I’ve never been disappointed with a meal I’ve had at a diner.
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@Hugh CC
The Hilltop Coach Diner brings back memories of the early seventies. Friday night was when we wrote and composed the weekly Queens College newspaper, the Phoenix. When I got there, it was the staff tradition to head to the Hilltop for coffee and dessert or early breakfast after we finished putting the paper to bed at around four am. I wasn’t a coffee drinker, so watching others soberly eating apple turnovers was not my idea of how to finish an evening. As the sun was coming up, I generally had to drive home a young woman (who later had a career in newspaper journalism) who lived in the Bronx, even though I lived in walking distance to our school.
As we younger kids moved up to running the place, we figured it would be more fun to do our jobs faster, so we could get out earlier and head to McElroy’s Bar on Bell Blvd. with a couple of hours before they closed at four. Drinking 7 &7s and family sized order of fries beat apple turnovers any day. I’m not sure I ever returned to the Hilltop, even though I wound up going to law school down the street.
I always preferred hitting White Castle after the bars closed, rather than the diner.
Diners are great! I never had a problem with the long menus. There is something for everyone, and you can easily find what you want.
Nothing beats an eggs Florentine or Benedict with home fries and fruit on the side. Add a cup of tea and I'm good to go.
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The Silver Star diner in Norwalk, CT, was the place to be in pre-dawn hours after staying out at night in the 1980's. It's still there and the menu was always very long. I love the plastic-covered menus at diners everywhere. Easy for the staff to wipe them off and nothing else feels like them. The only late-night competition to the Silver Star was the HoJo's in Darien, where people ordered the fried clams, a taste I never acquired. I think that building is long gone - is it a Whole Foods now? (The irony).
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@Jenny
I miss HoJo's (Howard Johnson's) rubber band like fried clams and the 28 flavors of ice cream. Never did much with Friendly's. I guess IHOP is a bit like a diner now, but the best thing at a good diner like Gardenia on Madison Ave. close is the open face turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes, gravy, and bit of tinned cranberry sauce (always throw it out after one serving at home). The best diner now for such treats in NYC is located at 181st and Fort Washington Ave. Don't know it's name.
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@Jenny
The Silver Star on Route 1? Wasn't that 'The Disco Diner'? I also remember Orem's Diner on Route 7 in Wilton. Famous for breakfast baked goods.
@Auntie Mame
the infamous clam " strips"
heresy !!
I grew up in Medford, a few miles from downtown Boston where I ate at Carol's Diner once or twice a month. My mother was a terrible cook and I looked forward to those diner excursions.
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy was my favorite dish and it was available year round. There were booths and counter stools.
I'm sad to hear so many diners are closing but glad some diners are being taken over by immigrants from countries other than Greece or Italy. New cuisines from new immigrants will always be exciting for foodies.
There was an innocence about those diners because they never had to post nutritional values and calories. And the menu was page after page beginning with breakfast, which was available day and night, and ending with desserts, which were pies and cakes baked in-house.
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@Ken Soli The Greek and Italian immigrants went from pushcarts to diners, cafeterias, then to service restaurants - all in the working class budget. They hired their countrymen - some, like my grandfather and his brothers helped workers open their own places - donating older booths and equipment to get them started. Each new wave of immigrants from a different part of the world brings different traditions and foods. The newcomers move into the housing being left by the last wave as they move up a step or two as Americans. The diners/small cafes, sandwich shops, etc. are part of the American immigrant story - Foodies are not.
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@wepetes
I have a friend who's family moved here when she was 5. She is the only person in her very large family who is not in the restaurant business.
A wonderful way to start a hectic week in America, the "How Did the Diner Menu Get So Long?"story of the history past and present of diners, emporia for comfort food in America. Many thanks and kudos to Rachel Warren and Koren Shadmi for their marvelous gift to diner afficianados!
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Gotta go to New Jersey for diner dining experience. There are diners all over the place and each one is different.
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Can one diner anywhere serve a decent cup of tea? $2.75 for a 3 cent Lipton Tea Bag? And then when the coffee drinkers are getting refills of ...coffee...I get a refill of hot water over used tea bag.
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@jn You're not paying just for the item but the overhead costs: labor, rent, insurance, profit. Also refills of coffee are diluted from the coffee grinds. You could get a refill of tea that may have been sitting out for hours or days and then you would complain about that too.
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@jn YES! It's kist more hot water!I guess we'll have to visit a tea shop for that.
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We’ve got several diners in Houston that were started by Greek immigrants. I didn’t realize that was a common thing all over the country. Very interesting.
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@Joshua Krause
Yes, the Greek immigrant community founded many a resto or pizzeria everywhere -- just as the Mexicans are now doing, and some Syrians are trying to do. (The Mexicans now run the pizzeria in NYC... and more work in Delis now than do Greeks.)
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@Auntie Mame
immigrant groups tend to cluster in certain business like Indians in independent hotels and Koreans in green groceries, and Greeks in dinners. It has to do with channels of influence and paths of communication. Basically, you know somebody in the business and the business owner hires people he knows. There was an interesting study once done of cab drivers in a city in India. It turned out that they were all related (or at least from the same village). Back in the 1920, a man got a car and started a taxi service. Then hired his brother, then another brother, then a cousin, then a second cousin, and on and on and on....
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I have learned at diners to get the simplest thing possible. No one messes up a grilled cheese. But whoa, frozen turkey with fake brown gravy--run for the hills! (And demand your money back.)
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Demand your money back? But you knew what you were getting. It’s a diner!
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@Pat
For some the nostalgia of that changeless, nowhere but in a diner taste and texture, is the best comfort food there is. As for me. I'll have the fries, extra crispy. Thanks.
I love the artwork! And the sentiment.
I stopped going to diners because the coffee is so terrible. Sour brown water.! I think that's one of the issue keeping people away.
There are too many great coffee places stealing the breakfast business away.
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@RW
100 % agree
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@RW \
Sure. Like the bitter burnt tasting coffee at Starbucks is great?
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5 minutes of my life that were well spent on this unexpected and fun story
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You should come to our thanksgiving dinner. We maintain the traditional thread of thanksgiving menu for the “normal” amongst us, but additionally for each item including dessert, we have: gf (gluten free); df (dairy free); nf (nut free); sf (soy free)..
Our table overflows with all the various versions of the offerings so we end up attaching a second table to the main one. So no one ever feels left out. Happiness abounds.
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@petey tonei Your family sounds like mine, where Dad was allergic to everything, the sisters to onions, and one to cloves. So I had to cook three versions of any meal. It was pretty fun, actually.
I think I responded to the wrong message, but I got up early and am not quite awake. Cheers.
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I tried a famous (and genuine) diner in Vermont. Not good. Not only was the menu huge, but the interior was papered all over with "specials", printed on 8 x 10 sheets. A mess. I felt sorry for the overworked staff having to deal with all that, probably why the food was so blah. They needed Gordon Ramsey to visit.
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@Bruce Cronin
The West Coast lacks diners-- unless you count Denny's. The West Coast has better breakfast places than the rest of the country, generally.
@ Abby Pleasant Hill, CA
I wonder whether the West Coast has better breakfast eateries "than the rest of the country" because of a later sunrise. By this measure, breakfasts in Hawaii and Guam should be outstanding.
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@Bruce Cronin
The Chelsea Royal Diner in West Brattleboro?
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Does this mean that the current food truck and food cart craze represents a return to diners' origins as mobile catering units with small, specialized menus oriented towards customers on the move?
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@Metaphor I think it means that there are always people who can see a step or two ahead - work and food trucks, push carts, The Ice Cream man trucks are cheap enough for a hard worker to get a start in business.
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I love these "comic book" features. A colorful and visually dynamic way to explore a topic like, say, uniquely designed diners. Thanks!
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A fascinating piece of culinary history. It must be a very, very long time since I ate in a diner, but one item would definitely attract me: a good true lobster roll.
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@Tuvw Xyz The last place anyone in the world would want to eat a lobster roll is in a DINER, where most of the food is pre-fabricated or really, really basic. With the preponderance of restaurants specializing in lobster rolls nowadays (but obviously not in Illinois), no one would consider heading for a diner when the craving for that particular thing hits...
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@Patou There are many diner owners (and patrons!) who would take issue with your statement that their food is "pre-fabricated". For just one delicious counter-example, head up to Wells, Maine and stop in at the Maine Diner. Try their lobster roll, chowder, or blueberry pie. Home-cooked and home-grown!
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I'm from Maine and I'd have to disagree. You can get great lobster rolls at diners up and down the coast.
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I married a guy from Long Island. Diner culture was new to me. We go to the same diner everytime with my in-laws. Same place my husband went as a teenager for late night snacks. My kids still love it as teenagers. My elderly in-laws know the servers, and it is so heart warming to see how they are treated as known customers. The diner offers a large, affordable special dinner and they go so they can take leftovers home, too. A shout out to Peter Pan Diner in Bay Shore, NY. They have fantastic food and a huge menu.
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@DG, spent many a late night there in my youth in Bay Shore - good ol' Peter Pan, he never wanted to grow up and neither did we! After a disco, we'd go there for late night feeding, so late, the staff would vacuum under the table around us.
Now I still go there when I'm back for the pancakes but, as Peter says:
“Once you're grown up you can't come back.”
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As someone who cooked in many restos, diner menus are fascinating. You can clearly see how A, B and C can convert to D, E and F, but still, even with overlaps, it's impossible to sustain a menu at the length of some I've seen without some serious compromises somewhere. It's just not possible. Thus you are always smart to stick to the well-traveled items. And always order your eggs whole, nothing scrambled. Those eggs are likely pre-cracked and in a huge vat if you're lucky. Otherwise they're poured out of a pre-pack container from Sysco (if you're lucky).
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@Matthew
I shudder when I see the Sysco truck unloading at "restaurants."
One of my huge diner disappointments in recent years has been that - when ordering eggplant anything - such as moussaka -- you get a thawed microwaved plate of mush, where in the old days it was actually freshly baked.
Astute advice on ordering eggs.
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Interesting, but so little content for the space it takes.
More to the point: a local diner (regular storefront, not rialroad-car based) recently changed hands, from Greek to Latino. Sadly, the food is still mediocre. But many neighborhood people still love it. I would guess that the basis of that love is not the food, but the prices, which are still considered reasonable. It is a place to fuel up, not a place to find culinary delights (pace Angel Almpnte)
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@Suzanne Fass I'd say nostalgia.
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@Suzanne Fass Diners or Corner sandwich shops plan menus and prices for working class people - like themselves.
Interesting topic. I don't understand the allure of comic-book features.
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@Jeffinprov
Comic-books aren't just funny books any more. Graphic novels are an accepted part of the literary world. And a picture is still worth a thousand words. Plus, here, you get the informative words as an added bonus!
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@Jeffinprov I agree - the visuals offer little substance. They seem to be used to hide the fact that the "informative words" (see Andrew Porter's reply) are actually quite skimpy.
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@Jeffinprov It's a fun way to whet your appetite for a topic, and if you want to delve in more, you can always read a 'regular' book.
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I have a lot of fond memories of diners, like the Forum in New Jersey, and the Empire diner in NYC, whose photo hangs in my kitchen. They are a part of Americana.
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