New York's Favorite Not-Diner Diners
Leather booths, tiled floors...and a three hour wait?
We’re a couple days early this week so I can take Monday off…enjoy a special Saturday roF
When I think of diners, I think of Squire’s Diner in FiDi, Sarah’s right by Wesleyan University, Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown, MA, West Taghkanic Diner in Ancram, NY. I think of old school booth seating, long menus, and big mugs of drip coffee with a little plastic pod of creamer.
In 1872, the vague notion of the American diner was born—a guy (his name was Walter) began offering walk up service selling food out of his horse-drawn wagon (love). Seeing Walter Scott’s success from his little buggy-operation, others caught on and created their own mobile food stops. Naturally, these service stops evolved into small restaurants located among industrial parts of the country where workers could stop for a quick bite at a small price, served out of repurposed train cars and trailers. By the 20s, it had become an integral part of America’s food culture.
A century later, the diner, as a concept at the very least, has had a resurgence, especially in New York City. On the one hand, in very plain terms, young people in New York have discovered the diner as a source of casual dining with reliably, and sometimes even surprisingly, low prices. On the other hand, a nostalgia for decades-gone by persists, with our love for the pre-y2k years (whether or not we experienced them) creeping into fashion, jewelry, recipes, and dining experiences. Whether it’s in response to this newfound excitement, our cultural obsession with aesthetically turning the clock back, or the fact that more hours of business = more money, new diners (or diner adjacent) businesses have been popping up and with a lot of noise. Restaurant owners are fighting insurmountable rent prices and growing costs of the ingredients they rely on, and higher costs of living that need to be met for their workers. I can imagine that a spot with low cost ingredients (eggs—except for right now because holy sh*t, bread, coffee, etc) and that can be open at obscene hours that attracts both the very early risers and the very late night owls is a promising business prospect.
Also, the revival of the diner comes at a time when you can walk into a Whole Foods, three days in a row, and not see a single carton of eggs. An iced coffee will run you $6. Every restaurant in New York seems to have a line out the door and serves a $28 caesar salad.
The diner, in theory, is a haven from ludicrous expenses and an escape from the sceney-ness (not a word) that comes with going out to eat. A coffee at Squire’s still costs $2 and you could walk in for a table of six at basically any time. Neptune Diner II on Classon has permanently piqued my interest, with a standard egg sandwich coming in at under $5. Need to see what that’s all about. To me, these places are the diner in its purest form: a 10 page menu with everything from chicken alfredo to beef gyro platters, perhaps a quesadilla and/or a pork chop, too. I can’t possibly fathom what it looks like to store the ingredients for 50+ menu items…probably better that remains a mystery.
In the last two years, what a diner can be has transcended its origin, making way for something a bit fancier, a bit more sparkly.
Variety Coffee, a familiar (and popular) coffee chain around the city, took over Three Decker Diner in Greenpoint two years ago with an updated interior, fancier coffee, and a liquor license. Three Decker, which has been open for 80 years, maintains a true diner feel with red booths, brown tiled floors, and a spiral bound primary-colored menu with bold fonts and cartoons of food. They still serve the hits, and the prices (mostly) remain, but the diner is now perpetually full with Greenpointers, celebrities, and Eater reviewers.
Similarly, Kellogg’s came under new management, and with an all star chef pulling together a late-night Tex-Mex menu, it was sure to be a hit. Kellogg’s return has clearly been welcomed with open arms, it is literally always full, and a two hour wait brings you to yet another padded booth in a chrome-detailed room, where a ten page menu has been sacrificed for a two page one, and an egg sandwich on a hard roll has been replaced by a $32 strip steak and nachos.
These diners-given-new-life have garnered serious attention, but if a true diner is what you are after, 9 times out of 10 I will point you to Court Square over Kellogg’s.
The other category of the “not-diner diners” are the ever-popular restaurants that have co-opted the name. I am in favor of these restaurants and the perspective they have taken on their chosen cuisine, though I am always curious what it is that makes them a “diner.” Is it breakfast food available late in the day? Or is this the only way to justify tiled floors and booths? They really all have them!!!
Golden Diner has been busy since it opened, but it’s been BUSY since tik-tok got a hold of it. Their honey-butter pancakes are, unfortunately, no joke, and I loooooove a vegetarian hero. Asian influence appears throughout the menu, with surprises like a vegan caesar and a classic breakfast burrito to keep you on your toes. This is a bill that very well may break $100, due to pure excitement more than anything else. I think Golden Diner is diner-esque, but something about it has truly lost the diner appeal, as has Kellogg’s, as has Thai Diner.
Thai Diner has become a SoHo institution and is one of few places I will willingly wait for, and go back to over-and-over again. At Thai Diner, reinvented hits sit alongside familiar Thai classics.The only reservations available are at the tail ends of dinner service (5 and 9ish), and for lunch. Otherwise, you are running the risk of a two hour wait and walking in for dinner. I think Thai Diner ran with their concept extraordinarily well–they’ve maintained steady popularity for years, and have the most identifiable branding. The website is so visually arresting, and so good.
I am addicted to the Baan salad, which has crispy rice scattered across a bed of romaine dressed heavily in a chili dressing and flush with fresh herbs. It is spicy, crunchy, refreshing–who knew a salad could be a comfort meal.
The Khao Soi (especially the vegetarian version with spinach and mushrooms) is the ultimate rainy day lunch with the perfect level of spice. It is topped with a chili jam that I would buy by the gallon.
Phat See Ew and Phat Thai are divine, as expected, especially when topped with their tofu, which seems to defy physics. The interior is so soft, and yet the outside is so crunchy? How do they do that? Fancier, and less expected items like oysters, caviar, and a lobster omelette somehow don’t feel out of place, and inventive desserts, like their insane coconut sundae, only add to the appeal. I need someone to go with me who will split Suvannmaccha’s Offering. I need spicy crab salad and passion fruit nam prik.
I love and appreciate these spots as much as everyone else, but I do wonder about the direction our diner excitement has taken us, and how far they can go while still being referred to as a “diner.” We have come a long way from horse-drawn rest stops to caviar service, don’t you think?
Tell me your thoughts on diners, and which are your favorites, especially if you have a specific diner you went to your entire childhood. I also firmly believe you can tell a lot about a person from their diner order. Mine is two eggs over easy, rye toast, hash browns, black coffee. What’s yours?
Where to next:
To me, Waffle House is the perfect diner.
The all star special: eggs over easy, hashbrowns covered, white toast, sausage patties, and a plain waffle is my go to order; with continuous refills of their house coffee of course.
Sometimes I wish we had them up here but it makes going back to the south feel more special.
Tibbett Diner in the Bronx is the real deal! Very classic diner feel, right down to the guy at the front desk shouting names and the sweet waitresses who will give you great menu recs and a bowl of 15 butters and 10 syrups to go with your pancakes.
A nostalgic fave of mine is Cozy’s Soup n Burger near Astor Place. I’ve enjoyed many late night waffles there after long nights out in the East village.