4 ms·

You just described Perkins, a diner chain in the upper Midwest. So basically New York diners are available in rural Iowa?

Moto7451 8y ago
I think good diners are available wherever good food is. My experience is that you’re more hard pressed to find consistently good treatment of vegetables. CA, NY, and anywhere with a good port or agricultural industry is usually ok, but I’ve had some truly sad experiences. Think wilted salads with pancake syrup as the dressing (what... the...). As far as Diners go though, I’m yet to travel somewhere in the US that lacks a good one. 24 hour operating hours is a very LA/NY thing. I’m sure they’re in SF, Chicago, etc but I haven’t spent enough time in those locales to know. Otherwise I’ve had a lot of variable quality food from 24 hour truck stops. Maybe the best was a 24 hour sea food oriented spot in the middle of nowhere Indiana. The worst was the Fosters Freeze on the 10, smack dab in the middle of the LA to Phoenix stretch. Simply horrible.
jclem 8y ago
Oof, it’s definitely not like Perkins at all. Perkins feels like a chain, and the food is far worse than most diners I’ve been a regular of over the years. Good diners have a gestalt that’s difficult to capture by just listing the characteristics of them. Diners are community hubs in a way that places like Perkins can’t typically become (though I won’t deny they have some regulars at least). Take one of my former locals, the somewhat famous Tom’s Restaurant in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Google Image Search it and tell me if it feels like a Perkins. There’s a ton of history there that you can only feel when you’re in the diner. When Dr. MLK, Jr. was assassinated, there was unrest in the neighborhood. Tom’s had no security gate, and neighbors (of all races according to reports [and the owner at the time]) locked arms and formed a human chain around the restaurant to protect it from damage. See also this obit of Gus Vlahavas[1], the former owner of Tom’s, who was a face I saw almost every Saturday morning in my early twenties when I lived in the neighborhood. So anyway, that’s my diner spiel. Tom’s is a pretty famous diner with a lot of history, but there are countless others like it in NYC. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/nyregion/gus-vlahavas-owner-of-toms-restaurant-in-brooklyn-dies-at-76.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/nyregion/gus-vlahavas-own...
- hprotagonist 8y ago
  well said!

Moto7451 8y ago

I think good diners are available wherever good food is. My experience is that you’re more hard pressed to find consistently good treatment of vegetables. CA, NY, and anywhere with a good port or agricultural industry is usually ok, but I’ve had some truly sad experiences. Think wilted salads with pancake syrup as the dressing (what... the...). As far as Diners go though, I’m yet to travel somewhere in the US that lacks a good one. 24 hour operating hours is a very LA/NY thing. I’m sure they’re in SF, Chicago, etc but I haven’t spent enough time in those locales to know. Otherwise I’ve had a lot of variable quality food from 24 hour truck stops. Maybe the best was a 24 hour sea food oriented spot in the middle of nowhere Indiana. The worst was the Fosters Freeze on the 10, smack dab in the middle of the LA to Phoenix stretch. Simply horrible.

jclem 8y ago

Oof, it’s definitely not like Perkins at all. Perkins feels like a chain, and the food is far worse than most diners I’ve been a regular of over the years. Good diners have a gestalt that’s difficult to capture by just listing the characteristics of them. Diners are community hubs in a way that places like Perkins can’t typically become (though I won’t deny they have some regulars at least). Take one of my former locals, the somewhat famous Tom’s Restaurant in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Google Image Search it and tell me if it feels like a Perkins. There’s a ton of history there that you can only feel when you’re in the diner. When Dr. MLK, Jr. was assassinated, there was unrest in the neighborhood. Tom’s had no security gate, and neighbors (of all races according to reports [and the owner at the time]) locked arms and formed a human chain around the restaurant to protect it from damage. See also this obit of Gus Vlahavas[1], the former owner of Tom’s, who was a face I saw almost every Saturday morning in my early twenties when I lived in the neighborhood. So anyway, that’s my diner spiel. Tom’s is a pretty famous diner with a lot of history, but there are countless others like it in NYC. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/nyregion/gus-vlahavas-owner-of-toms-restaurant-in-brooklyn-dies-at-76.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/nyregion/gus-vlahavas-own...

hprotagonist 8y ago
well said!