The Magic of the Diner

I started my Saturday with a diner breakfast…one of my secret passions.

And, because blog inspiration can come from anywhere, I started thinking about coffee shops and diners and what’s so magical about them. Their history is sort of interesting (to me, anyway). Like Seamless, the concept of a diner was fed by (pun intended) a consumer need for convenience and speed. In 1858, Walter Scott seized an opportunity. Involved in the media business (of course) he decided to sell food from a horse-drawn wagon outside a newspaper office. The wagons ultimately morphed into free-standing structures. See the links, below for more diner lore.

Free-standing diners in New York are, sadly, dying off. Two more were shuttered just late last year. (I guess I’m not the only writer waxing poetic about diners. Check out this New York Times article.

Despite the fact that I can have any type of food delivered to my door at any hour of the day or night, drinking that first morning cup of coffee on a vinyl stool, alongside a line of total strangers has a certain appeal and nostalgia to it. Diners have an instant community vibe about them.

So, although I think that Seamless and UberEATS and the “pretend that you’re a home cook” services like Blue Apron are all wonderful conveniences, they are, like many things in our new tech-driven world, devoid of humanity and conversation.

There simply is no substitute for a diner breakfast (or lunch or dinner). And think about it…has a barista has ever just offered you a free coffee refill?!

A menu of links…

	The complete history of the diner.
	The diner as a film background (and the meetings that took place in it).
	Not really diners…and some of them seem pretty cool. But some seem just WRONG!
	You might think the flag is America’s symbol…but it’s really the diner!