I confess that my love affair with the American diner started at least a decade before I actually stepped through the door of my first true classic on San Francisco's Market Street in the late 1980s and ordered a BLT.
The birthplace of America's first diner in 1858 - Providence, Rhode Island. Photo credit: Robyn Sunderland
Like many Australians growing up in the 1970s, my weekly TV viewing included an episode of Happy Days featuring the famous gang sitting in double booths, ordering milkshakes, and figuring out teenage life at Arnold's Diner. I was smitten by the bright grilled cheese, tight-waisted dresses with puffy petticoats, leather-clad greasers, and that vinyl-packed jukebox!
Padded chrome stools, booths & a sugar dispenser on every table
After leaving our classic diner in San Francisco, we hit the highways and visited 42 U.S. states across the country for three and a half months in an oil-guzzling, 1972 Lincoln Continental. We stopped at a diner for lunch in almost every town, sat in a booth or along the counter, played the jukebox, snacked on grilled American cheese sandwiches along with small bowls of rich brown meaty chili, and got to know the locals.
Our local Brooklyn diner in Park Slope. Photo credit: Robyn Sunderland
Short-order cooks a.k.a. masters of the flat-top grill
As someone who finds cooking relaxing, I consider sitting at the diner counter and watching the short-order cooks and wait staff pump out orders at speeds unknown as a weekly necessity. As I person who also loves stats, I was delighted to discover that the May 2019 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated there were 150,000 short-order cooks across the country (that's a hell of a lot of eggs)!
BLT on white with mayo. Photo credit: Robyn Sunderland
Egg and bacon sandwich with ketchup, of course. Photo credit. Robyn Sunderland
The diner counter is where things get sorted
Having lived in New York City for 25 years now, and like almost everyone I know, we've moved from neighborhood to neighborhood and witnessed many of our favorite restaurants come and go. We remain grateful that many of the classic diners we've frequented over the years — including the Westside Diner in Providence, Rhode Island, which was the birthplace of the American diner in 1858 — are still thriving today. It's also an egg-lovers honor that my wife and I have reached "regular" status at 7th Avenue Donuts & Diner in the Slope where the coffee arrives on cue and our order is known by heart.
A bottomless cup of coffee = love in a mug. Photo credit: Robyn Sunderland
Iconic New York City diners to check out:
- Come for the 24/7 menu, stay for the friendly wait staff, and fresh yeast and cake donuts made on the premises daily.
- Serving breakfast and lunch only, this delightfully lived-in diner was a location for Mrs. Maisel, and is one of the best places in town for spotting actors.
- A holdout in the Wall Street neighborhood for 50 years, this stand-alone diner offers up all the breakfast and lunch standards including a host of Greek specialties.
- Enjoy the delicious menu along with the classic Art Deco beauty and retro-modern interior of this Chelsea icon.
- Boasting 280 seats, this whopper of a diner is NYC's largest and is open Mon-Tue from 6-10pm and Wed-Sun around the clock.
- Weekend lines can be long, but the friendly neighborhood vibe and fluffy ricotta pancakes make it worth the wait.
How to find your go-to diner:
- Visit as many diners as you can within a 12-15 block radius of your apartment, make yourself comfortable (coat hooks a plus), and ask them each to make you the same thing.
- For us, that's a breakfast sandwich with bacon and eggs over medium (EOM) on a burger bun (extra marks if it's brioche), squirted with ketchup from a bottle.
- If your order includes a bottomless cup of coffee with a jug of fresh milk, not creamer, award bonus points.
- Whoever serves up the breakfast and coffee that makes you feel like all your worries have melted away, becomes your local!
Head out and try your local diners and let us know which is your neighborhood's finest!
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