The other month, K and
I went up to New England to catch up with our friends J and M. The live in
Cambridge and we planned to take a trip with them through Massachusetts, New
Hampshire and Vermont, peeping at leaves, walking through woods and sampling
local fare. I wanted to renew my relationship with clam chowder, cook with any
number of squash that were then in season, and eat candy corn in light of Halloween.
We ended up in Springfield but only after detours to Peterborough (for sandwiches)
and Keene (for coffee).
The best experience of
the trip was enjoying the strong diner game in these small towns. Perhaps the
highlight was when we were at Timoleon’s and the waitress, fake lashes and all,
said, ‘I don’t want you to get offended, I ask this of all the customers.’ I
replied, ‘No, it’s fine go right ahead’ thinking that she would warn me off my
request for a side scoop of ice-cream because of my expanding waistline. With a
kind of heartfelt trepidation, she then said ‘Ice-cream costs an extra $1.75.
Are you ok with that?’ Breathing a sigh of relief, I replied that I was, of
course, up for the charge to which she breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed
both of us were looking forward to my side of ice-cream with a slice of
banoffee pie.
Timoleon’s was no
exception to the rule that diners seem to come from the 1950s; a homage to an
automobile, spaceship, suburban era, with curved edges and hints of chrome. The menu has inevitably changed over time but one can
still expect burgers, soups, waffles, pancakes, eggs, and pie. Pie is something that has yet to really land in Australia
– there has been a wave of doughnuts in the last few years covering all bases
and all flavours, but pie seems to be a quintessentially American experience
for me. To eat pie in a diner adds to the dish, precisely because it is
American in America in America.
In our neighbourhood,
there are three diners that are close by. All three are on Broadway: Metro at
100th; Manhattan at 95th; City at 90th. There
is something charming about each of them, and K and I often find our selves
sitting at the counter on a walk home, drinking bottomless cups of joe (her) or
iced water (me). We prefer City Diner
but not for any reason in particular. We like it because it is close by but
also because it has a good community feel. The other night when we were there,
three or four people sat reading the Times,
exchanging casual asides and bringing down hellfire on Weinstein, Spacey and Trump, in between their spaghetti
bolognaise, chopped salad, sides of cottage cheese. I might add in here, that
City Diner’s side of cottage cheese is generous and it is something curious to
watch people scoop it into their mouth thinking nothing of what they are doing;
another relic of the past alive and well right here in our neighbourhood.
Given that City Diner
is open for 24 hours, the clientele changes depending on the hour. K and I have
sat in a booth alone in the restaurant, or being bunched up in a line while it
rains outside, and all with a wide array of people. When we were away with J
and M, the appeal was in the price, a kind of Main Street hygge but here the
appeal lies in how the diner mirrors public space in the city as a whole. In
other words, the diner is home to diverse experiences and people that cover the
whole spectrum of economic interests and tastes. It can be cheap with
bottomless cups of coffee that appeal to anyone and everyone, and it can
attempt to be mid-range, which in our case, is somewhat high end given that we
live on a writer’s budget. You can get a hamburger as cheap as a fast food
franchise or a steak that will set you back $35 including tip. It offers a real
range of choice, which is what I love about it.
Often, K and I come here for a night out, reminded of Just Kids when Patti Smith and Robert
Mapplethorpe had just moved to the city and lived on tomato soup and grilled
cheese at various diners. It was cheaper then, but still, diners can be a good
deal, and, like I said, they are like a kind of public space that mirrors the
city itself where you can sit and be warm, read the Times and put away as much cottage cheese as you will ever need for
$2.99.
City Diner is a place
for pie of any particular measure. Displayed in a cabinet with other sweets,
there is always plenty to choose from. Today there is cherry, apple, peach,
pecan, but it really is the luck of the draw depending on what day you go. I
like the pie here because it seems to suit diner culture, to be a capsule from
another time and the kind of middle Americana that has a retro, kitschy,
foreign appeal. I get blueberry and K gets apple – they are jammy and sweet,
the pastry firm and crunchy, it comes with stars of cream. It
is a good spot to take a break from the cold and contemplate what ‘the New York public’
thinks is good taste.
City Diner
2441 Broadway, New York, NY 10024
Subway: 1, 2 at 86th; ABC at 96th.
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