• American Diner Museum
• Diner products
• Diner books
• Seinfeld DVD and diner products
• Beverly Hills 90210 DVD
• Saved by the Bell DVD
• Rosie's Diner
• The Rosie the waitress ad
• Tom's Restaurant picture
• Suzanne Vega's song Tom's Diner
• Le Café des Cascadeurs
• The Westfield Leader
• Disneyland, Paris

Diner Dining

Few things are as American as apple pie, except maybe the places where those sloppy slices taste best: diners. These prefabricated stainless steel restaurants, originally made to resemble the dining cars of old trains, have long been a part of American small town and highway landscapes. For over a century, they've bridged generations, caffeinated the masses, and put extra holes in many a belt.

According to the American Diner Museum, they began as mobile lunch cars in New England in the 1870s. At first, they were mostly for men and just had stools; in the 1920s, booths were introduced so women could sit in skirts.

Today, diners have become a part of American culture, generating a demand for kitsch products and books on the subject. Remove them from recent U.S. history, and, well, there'd be a lot of episodes of Seinfeld, Beverly Hills 90210, and Saved by the Bell where not a whole lot goes on.

Here's a look at some of the more notable diners around the world:

Rosie's
Rockford, MI

Rosie's used to be called the Silver Dollar Diner when it was located in Little Ferry, NJ. It was made famous in the 1970s to '90s by the paper towel commercials featuring Rosie the Waitress. Jerry Berta bought and moved the diner in 1996 to complement a previous diner in which he'd set up an art gallery. What inspired him to get a second diner? People kept coming into the gallery wanting fries instead of art.

Tom's Restaurant
New York, NY

Tom's Restaurant isn't a traditional boxcar diner, but it's one of the most celebrated diners in the world, because its outside was used in nearly every episode of Seinfeld. Signed stills from the show hang on the walls inside. It's also the subject of the Suzanne Vega song Tom's Diner. What to order? Many New Yorkers rate their fries as some of the city's best.

Le Café des Cascadeurs
Paris, France

Westfield, NJ's beloved Excellent Diner was carted overseas to Germany by an expatriate in 1996. In 2002, according to the paper in the diner's old NJ hometown, the stainless steel building was sold and moved to Disneyland, Paris, where its name was changed to "Café des Cascadeurs," which means "The Stuntmen's Café." However, to Americans, it'll always be "Excellent."

 

Posted on April 03, 2006