Some fit the style, some don’t. There are the big, sprawling ones like Truckstops of America which are more tourist trap than restaurant. Those could never be confused with a diner.
I was thinking of the type where the truckstop seems like an afterthought. Good food, like that to be had from diners, attracts truckers. It would make sense to put in diesel pumps where you know the truckers will already be. I was thinking of one specific truckstop on I-70 in Indiana, where the restaurant has a log cabin motif, typical diner food, and waitresses in beehive hairdos.
They may be a fine place to eat and serve great food in a great atmosphere, but they are quite far from a real English pub, and I’ve been to a lot of pubs, in England, Wales, and Scotland. When I took Fierra to the one near us she asked when we were going to the pub, since what we were in was not really recognizeable.
Diners are one of the things I really, really miss about NYC. I love diners with the older Greek owner who knows you on sight, only because you always order the same thing - the challah French toast, the grilled cheese (with tomato), those small plastic cups with the bumpy stuff that makes it look like glass. Hitting the diner at 3 AM for munchies food after either being out at the bars until all hours of the night or smoking all night in your apartment before realizing that there’s no food to eat. That’s when a diner is the epitome of ‘fine dining’.
Someday, when time isn’t an issue, you should drive down to Arlington, VA and eat at Bob & Edith’s. Total greasy spoon and open 24/7. Breakfast anytime and they’re always offering you coffee. It gets very crowded around 2am with all the drunks but it’s great fun. The hamburgers and omlets are good. It’s cheap too. And it has great pie.
They have a second location about 10 miles down the street from them that’s much bigger, but I like the original. The menu is one page, laminated. so yum.
There’s a really good diner in Vermont. I think it’s called Blue Plate Diner or something like that but I’m not sure. I also don’t know what town it’s in but it’s really far north. After we left the ferry from Plattsburgh NY, we got on the highway south and got off the first exit. At then end of the exit ramp, go left. It’s high up on a hill on the right hand side of the road. Sorry that I can’t get more specific than that. Maybe someone here knows more about the place.
However, there’s a train car diner in Chicopee Massachusetts. The food is inexpensive and really good. I got a turkey dinner and the best mozzarella sticks I’ve ever had. My fiancee got meat loaf. The train car still has all it’s original fixtures and it’s quite cool. I’d recommend it if you’re ever passing through the area. It’s only about 3 miles away from the Pike and definitely worth the stop.
You owe it to yourself to order the Fried Mushrooms, I ALWAYS stop in for them when heading “Downtown” (I live in Clear Lake), the 'shrooms at the “59” are wonderful but beware! when you order them they back a dump truck full up to your table.
Unclviny
(who’s ideal “dinner out” is 'shrooms at the 59 and over to the Mucky Duck for Guiness Beef (or Beef Guiness, whatever they call it it rocks!)
There’s a great diner just over the bridge that connects Perryville to Havre de Grace on the Havre de Grace side; I bet you already know about it. It’s called The Bridge Diner and it rocks. My boyfriend and I have eaten there maybe a half-dozen times in the past two years.
It’s pretty much a tiny, dingy, funky, OLD place that does indeed look like a 1930s train dining car. I swear to God, I don’t think the window curtains have been changed since the Eisenhower administration. The menu, as I remember, is only maybe two pages, and laminated and a bit sticky. Offerings include hamburgers, BLTs, salisbury steak, fries with gravy, etc. You get the picture.
Not sure about desserts as neither my boyfriend nor I are really big on sweets. The food we’ve had is good, though, and cheap… definitely within the price range you mentioned. I think the most expensive thing on the menu is a T-bone steak with all the trimmings for around ten bucks. As I said, you probably already know about this joint, but if not, I think it’d be worth a trip back up there to check it out.
Oh, yeah. I also seem to remember coffee cups already on the table when we sat down.
Bob and Edith’s!!! I love them! My best friend and her husband live about five minutes away, so any time I go up to visit them, we eat at Bob & Edith’s - you’ve gotta love any diner that can serve steak and eggs for three for UNDER $20.
For dopers who live in or visit the Conneaut Lake-Pymatuning Lake area, I can heartily recommend Mama Bear’s in Conneaut Lake.
This place has all the essential diner elements. I recommend especially the Wow Burger - a cheeseburger with special sauce and a whole slice of onion on it.
I can’t read this thread without linking to James Lilek’s extensive collection of roadside diner postcards.
You can feast your eyes on the pictures of scores of restaurants, all of them unique and many of them great examples of the typical diner architecture of the postwar era.
Hey Dave, Ginger - next time you’re in this neck of the woods, I’ll treat you to lunch at the Ledo Café - that’ll take care of you diner hankering for about…3 years. Trust me.
I just wanna throw out the St Paul tradition of the downtown Mickey’s Diner. It’s the complete diner experience with the “Flo’s”, the transients, and the greasy food at fair prices. I walk by this place everyday on my commute to work and you can tell it’s an afterbar favorite in the morning if ya get my drift.
