Brag about your favorite Diner!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Diners, breakfast joints, late night grub, lunch counter, roadside stop, Cooked-To-Order: I think you all know what I’m talking about here.

My favorite diner of all time is this place called The Rainbow, an establishment in Greenville, SC (where I was raised) located on the Poinsett Highway, not far from Furman University.

They have this chili-cheeseburger that is, well, perfect! The chili and cheese come together on the burger in such a way that the sandwich isn’t sloppy (a common problem found with chili-cheeseburgers at lesser establishments). No muss and no fuss in eating this thing. Everything about this burger is just right. I always got it with the half-and-half (onion rings and French fries)…until,

One day, Mrs. Consigliori and I are stopping there for lunch, and I decide that I am in the mood for something different. They had a sandwich on the menu called the Sans Souci, named for the local neighborhood (believe it or not, in lil’ ol’ G’ville, there is an old mill village neighborhood that has a name derived from the French Language- please don’t tell Bill O’Reilly, as I don’t want to see the name changed to Freedomville, or whatever).

The Sans Souci sandwich was beyond delicious. It was like a Club on steroids- familiar, yet unique in its own way. A truly awesome Diner experience.

It is a 45 minute drive to get to The Rainbow from where I live now, so I don’t get to eat there very often. My blood vessels and cholestoral levels are thankful that I don’t live across the street from The Rainbow, and my mind recognizes that too much of a good thing is not a Good Thing. So I treasure the times when I can visit The Rainbow with Mrs. Consigliroi and have a traditional meal in My Favorite Diner.

Please tell me about your favorite Diner, as I always love to visit a restaurant that features Great Burgers and Beyond!

2

The food at the Nifty Fifty Diner in Pine, Arizona is good stuff, but it’s the atmosphere that’s really neat. You have bikers, cowboys, hikers, and locals all sitting side by side eating breakfast in a small, pine town. They also have a peanut butter malt that I have to try one of these days. I always say I’m going to try the peanut butter malt, but then I order the chocolate malt because you can’t get better than a chocolate malt.

3

The Pilgrim Diner in Verona, NJ. Now, Northern New Jersey is the Diner Capital of the World, so you must understand that there’s a lot of competition out there. All New Jersey diners are more or less the same–waitresses that call you “hon,” cheese fries with gravy, and bottomless coffee cups. It’s all about the atmosphere.

About five or six years ago, we waltzed up to the door one night to discover that the diner was closed “due to a small kitchen fire.” It didn’t open again for at least a year. (My friends and I are of the belief that it was indeed a small kitchen fire, however, it was a fairly large dining room fire.) We were forced to seek other avenues of Diner Fulfillment. I spent my teenage years at Versailles, Dakota, Great Falls, any number of other prominent area diners … but boy oh boy, did we miss the Pilgrim.

All their wraps are named after rappers. All their chicken sandwiches are named after famous women. All their burger specials are named after local sports teams. These guys are creative, people! Give them some credit! Although, we still can’t figure out why there are peacocks on the menus and placemats. Wouldn’t buckles and big black hats be more apropos?

But most importantly, the Pilgrim Diner follows all the rules for greatness in New Jersey Diner Etiquette: no royal title in the name (royal diners are usually full of guys who’ve been in prison as recently as that morning), no way to easily convert the name into a bug reference (the Golden Roach and the Roach House come to mind–bug diners have good coffee and desserts, everything else is crap), and the owners are Greek immigrants. Follow those three rules, people, and you’ll find the best diners in the area. :slight_smile:

4

Chick’s Diner. Home of the Egg Chick Muffin (fried egg, cheese, bacon–heart attack on a hard roll) and their french fries with gravy are the stuff of legend.

5

The Sunset Diner, Rt 22, Green Brook NJ. After an evening of misspending my misspent youth, we usually ended up there.

6

Oooohhhh diners, how I miss thee.
There is only one place out here that one can go to at 3 AM for after-the-bar food, Denny’s, and a crummy Denny’s at that.

My favorites of days gone by:

Seville Diner - Route 18 Southbound - East Brunswick, NJ

Colonial Diner - Route 18 Northbound - East Brunswick, NJ

I spent, many, many nights in both establishments, drinking coffee, eating fries and gravy, or reubens with extra russian dressing, or chicken fingers, or, or, or…

A favorite for breakfast was Polonia Diner on the causeway in South River, NJ.

Also a fabulous little ice cream place right next door. Much better ice cream, cheaper, and no long lines like Magnifico’s on Rte 18.

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Cafe Bandoli in Minneola.

They have waffle fries, which are nothing new.

But the sauce they give you to dip them in…a combination of sour cream, horseradish, and something else…
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

8

The Bel-Loc Diner in Towson, just outside of Bawlmer, hon! Ate there all the time in college—they had the brightest turkey gravy in town. You could fill a lightbulb with the stuff and read by it.

9

I don’t think it’s around anymore (based on not finding it in a Google search), but my favorite Diner ever was the Kid’s Diner, in Baltimore. It was a vocational training program through one of the high schools, and the students rotated through all the jobs (with a teacher hovering over the cash register, as I recall).

It was an adventure. Usually the food was good, sometimes it was barely edible. Usually the service was good, and enthusiastic, sometimes it was sullen, occasionally it was frightening. It helped that the first time I went there a class was almost ready to graduate, so everything was running very well. When a new class came in, it could be pretty shakey. You always counted your change. I always tipped really well, except when I was scared. All kinds of people ate there, and it was cheap. For a broke college student who wanted to save the world (I was so innocent), it was absolutely perfect.

10

Tops Diner- East Newark, NJ (Passaic Ave. and Clay St.)

Don’t let the crummy scenery fool you. Nothing anyone can say can convince me that Tops isn’t the Best Diner in the Universe.

But I will swing by Vernona to check out the Pilgrim Diner. :slight_smile:

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Goodness! My spelling is horrible!

12

Metro 29, the only diner I know of that serves surf & turf.

We mostly go to Bob & Edith’s because we can walk to the second location.

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I was coming in here to say the Bel-Loc as well. Bad lighting, big-haired Hons serving you with a smile and a Bawlmer accent even better than yours!

14

The Blue Moon Diner in Aloha, OR. The breakfasts there are the best, especially their O’Brien potatoes. Huge servings, prices are very reasonable - you definitely get your money’s worth. I love their tuna melts, too. But the best reason to go is their real ice cream milkshakes, served with the metal mixing container.

15

Shaker’s in Pasadena, CA. It’s not an all-night diner, but it’s open till 1am on Friday and Saturday in a city where after 9pm, if you don’t want fast food then you go hungry, or you go to Shakers.

(Or Denny’s, but… yech!)

Best items on the menu:

  • Real ice cream milkshakes. Chocolate Mint, even

  • Eggs Incognito. Scrambled Eggs, covered in CHILI! With a side of potatoes.

  • Homemade corned beef hash.

  • Ham steaks that ROCK.

  • Dinner specials that are tasty, although they appear to be sized and marketed for seniors. (If you want huge portions, go to Marie Callendars.)

  • Hamburgers are good, too. It’s one of the few places where they still ask you how you want your burger done.

  • Soups, creative, yummy soups.

Now, if you ask some folks in Pasadena, they may say Twohey’s, in South Pasadena. And I like Twohey’s a lot. But their burgers are way overrated. They really only have two things going for them:

  • Bittersweet Hot Fudge Sundaes. Best in the entire LA area.

  • All you can eat Baby Back Rib specials several times a year.

Shaker’s wins.

There once was an all-night diner called Rose City Diner in old town, but they changed management and now everything there just sucks.

16

There’s a little greasy spoon on Denman street in Vancouver called the Grove Cafe that I love for breakfasts. It’s not much to look at, but the waitresses are fantastic to a one. They call me “honey,” or “sweetie,” when they refill my coffee, which goes a long way. The coffee is great, and served in those squat thick ceramic cups.

I was puzzled for a long time because each time I ordered a bagel and creamed cheese, it was brought to me with a little tub of strawberry jam on the side. Finally one day I tried it and it’s delicious, although I wouldn’t feel right about it in any other environment, somehow.

Although I’m not a regular there, I’ve got to put in a word for the Templeton Cafe on Granville Street. It’s a total time-warp, and not in that fakey plastic nostalgia way. I don’t think the Templeton has changed a bit in thirty years. They got the superficial stuff – the checkered tile floor, the chrome stools, the juke box, all that. But the food-- the food would give David Lynch a hard-on. You got the soda fountain and ice-cream floats, sure. Breakfast? Try the “Big Ass Breakfast” – Three eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, and herbed spuds. If you’re feeling less gluttonous, check out the “Mangled Eggs” – garlicky eggs scrambled with melted brie, served on a croissant and topped with bacon. For lunch they have the best burgers ever, and some classy sandwiches.(Their grilled cheese is a thing of wonder.) I had an artichoke quesidilla there once that knocked me out.

17

Beth’s Cafe on north Aurora in Seattle. Home of the 12-egg omelet, open 24/7, has excellent coffee. I spent many a late night there, perusing “The Stranger” and getting endless coffee refills.

It’s probably one of the things I miss most about Seattle, no kidding.