Diner Food at Home

[David Ross]

I have a soft spot in my heart for the American Diner. My local Diner is a classic--a dining car from the Great Northern Railroad that served for decades on the Empire Builder passenger train that still runs today between Seattle and Chicago. In fact, the original concept of the Diner was to duplicate the streamlined, chrome design of the passenger dining car, manufacture it offsite and then transport it to a roadside location. Over the decades the Diner has evolved into all manner of architectural designs that are different from the original Streamliner, yet what has stayed constant is the style of Diner food we've come to love-pancakes and homemade corned beef hash for breakfast, thick hamburgers and fresh cherry pie for lunch and the "blue-plate" special for dinner. (And in my mind, Diner food isn't the "Fusion" cuisine we sometimes see spotlighted on a certain television show).

Although I can't duplicate the atmosphere of the Diner at home, I do cook Diner food at home-maybe a meatloaf with gravy, peas and carrots (fresh-cut carrots, not frozen). How about a tuna melt or chipped beef on toast. I even have some white porcelain dishes that I use that accent the nostalgia of the Diner.

What are your favorite Diner dishes and do you cook them at home?

[ElsieD]

We too are fond of meatloaf and after a meatloaf/corn/spud meal the rest of the meatloaf is used up in sandwiches. We also make hamburgers using ground chuck. We buy chuck roasts at a Chinese grocery store and they grind them for us. Heaven on a plate, those burgs. We also like mac & cheese and baked beans. Not sure if that qualifies as diner food, though.

[Fat Guy]

90% of my diner meals are breakfasts, which doesn't mean I don't love that kind of food a other times of day. It's just that when making restaurant choices I don't often choose a diner for lunch or dinner -- though, when I do, I sometimes wonder "Why don't we do this more often." Here in NYC we have a few diners whose kitchens perform better than the average middle-market place. I'd rather get a piece of fish from one of several diner-type places than from a lot of restaurants that purport to be seafood restaurants.

Some of my favorite diner breakfast items: pancakes, French toast, waffles, eggs Benedict, cheese omelet, all with bacon or sausage; also in NYC you can get good bagel, lox and cream cheese at a lot of places

In terms of non-breakfast items I love: hot open-face turkey sandwich with fries and gravy (also the roast-beef variant), French onion soup, Cobb salad, Greek salad (a lot of diners around here are Greek-owned, so you also see good moussaka, souvlaki, etc., at some places), grilled cheese in all sorts of arrangements, BLT, turkey club, cheeseburger and fries if they're good, various pies, rice pudding or banana pudding or whatever depending on region (regional diner differences -- there's a topic).

[Fat Guy]

Hmm I guess I was supposed to talk about cooking that stuff at home. All the breakfast stuff I do. Most of the other stuff, with the exception of burgers, not so much.

[gfweb]

I do two meatloaves a month for quick meals and sandwiches. Usually served with glazed carrots and mashed potatoes.

I make the occasional Reuben (is that diner or deli?). A critical step is to drain and lightly saute the kraut btw. It keeps the sandwich crisp. I also like to saute the meat till it gets a little browned.

Taylor pork roll is a breakfast and lunch meat that I often have around and is very dinerish I guess.

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[David Ross]

90% of my diner meals are breakfasts, which doesn't mean I don't love that kind of food a other times of day. It's just that when making restaurant choices I don't often choose a diner for lunch or dinner -- though, when I do, I sometimes wonder "Why don't we do this more often." Here in NYC we have a few diners whose kitchens perform better than the average middle-market place. I'd rather get a piece of fish from one of several diner-type places than from a lot of restaurants that purport to be seafood restaurants.

Some of my favorite diner breakfast items: pancakes, French toast, waffles, eggs Benedict, cheese omelet, all with bacon or sausage; also in NYC you can get good bagel, lox and cream cheese at a lot of places

In terms of non-breakfast items I love: hot open-face turkey sandwich with fries and gravy (also the roast-beef variant), French onion soup, Cobb salad, Greek salad (a lot of diners around here are Greek-owned, so you also see good moussaka, souvlaki, etc., at some places), grilled cheese in all sorts of arrangements, BLT, turkey club, cheeseburger and fries if they're good, various pies, rice pudding or banana pudding or whatever depending on region (regional diner differences -- there's a topic).

Thank you, thank you. The delicious open-face hot turkey sandwich. A classic I forgot. You've inspired me to add that to my menus for the days ahead. As I remember it from the "Depot Grill" diner in Twin Falls, Idaho, (My Grandfather's favorite diner), it was simply white bread, untoasted, with layers of turkey breast, a scoop of mashed potatoes, then smothered in a hot, dark, turkey gravy. I don't think they served any vegetable on the side as I remember. Now that is certainly a diner classic I'll make at home.

[onrushpam]

Green beans, simmered a long time with onions and bacon, are the best side for that open-faced sammich!

[Mjx]

. . . . Here in NYC we have a few diners whose kitchens perform better than the average middle-market place. . . .

Where?! Please name one or two: I like the idea of diner food at a conceptual level, but every time I've eaten at one in the last dozen years or so, most of the food has been ghastly enough that the only upside of the experience is that it makes a hilarious story to tell others. EJ's wasn't bad, but the one near Jefferson Market closed long ago, don't know about the other one, on the Upper East Side (and I found it a bit... faux-diner-ish).

I love hot, open roast-beef sandwiches with fries and gravy, and a wedge of dill pickle and some lettuce, and occasionally make that at home. Also, French toast. And (no, I'm not kidding, I love the stuff) jello, even when it's a completely cracked-out colour, and the flavour bears not the remotest resemblance to any known fruit.

[janeer]

I make the Portuguese sweet bread French toast with chorizo I first had at the Hope Diner in Bristol, RI. Mac and cheese, meatloaf, etc, of course, but is that really diner food, or just food we grew up on? Layer cakes, NY cheesecake, good danish, coconut cream pie--all were things you could get at a good diner when I was a kid, and that I make at home. But again, what, specifically, makes something "diner food" and not just "American food"?

[David Ross]

I make the Portuguese sweet bread French toast with chorizo I first had at the Hope Diner in Bristol, RI. Mac and cheese, meatloaf, etc, of course, but is that really diner food, or just food we grew up on? Layer cakes, NY cheesecake, good danish, coconut cream pie--all were things you could get at a good diner when I was a kid, and that I make at home. But again, what, specifically, makes something "diner food" and not just "American food"?

I'm not the expert in terms of definitions, but in my mind "Diner Food" is the quintessential description of "American Food"-simple, flavorful, hearty dishes made from basic ingredients-beef, potatoes, bacon, and eggs. I think of the dishes that were popular when the Streamliner Diners were introduced in the 1930's-pork chops with onion gravy and crab apples, grilled cheese sandwiches and, like you mentioned, coconut cream pie as typical Diner dishes that we can cook at home.

There is an interesting history on the Diner here.

I'm sure there were ethnic influences in some of the dishes served in Diner's depending on the part of the country you lived in-but back then there wasn't access to the wide variety of ingredients that influence cooking today. In the Northwest, we didn't see many ethnic dishes on Diner menus when I was a kid in the late 50's and into the 60's. However, the Depot Grill that my Grandfather frequented was in the heart of sheep country in Southern Idaho. My Grandfather was in the wool and sheep pelt business and knew a number of the Basque Sheepherder's in the area. Maybe they had some Basque dishes on the menu at the Depot Grill in 1943?

[robirdstx]

The sandwich I ordered most often was a patty melt.

[Fat Guy]

Where?! Please name one or two

We're going to need an NYC diner topic too. I just ate at Veselka and was thinking, hmm, this place is better than most restaurants at twice the price. EJ's on the Upper West and Upper East are indeed pretty good. One of the best diners I've ever been to is Tom's in Brooklyn. But the diner I hit the most often, in part because of proximity, is the Westside Restaurant. They do a surprisingly good job on a lot of dishes, though their burger are weak. In my old neighborhood I thought Three Guys was quite good.

[David Ross]

I would imagine that a lot of the Old-Fashioned Cakes we've been discussing were standard offerings under the glass cake domes on Diner counters. (I have two layers of Devil's Food Cake cooling on the counter as we speak. Now that's a Diner classic).

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'd be interested in finding out which of the NYC diners (that aren't upscale comfort food places done up in the style of 1950s diner) are actually making most of their own food. I often wait at a bus stop near a diner and see their deliveries come in, and recognizing a lot of typical diner food arriving in #10 cans, buckets, and frozen packaging.

Egg dishes are made on the spot, and I suspect meatloaf tends to be homemade, and some must be roasting their own turkeys. Burgers of every sort arrive frozen. Probably the fries, too. That mushy diner corned beef hash is usually from one of those big cans. I'd imagine the soups are often canned or prepared elsewhere, but occasionally you see something like a chicken soup that appears to have freshly cut vegetables. There's really good corned beef hash made fresh at the Carnegie, but I don't think of that as a diner.

[andiesenji]

I would imagine that a lot of the Old-Fashioned Cakes we've been discussing were standard offerings under the glass cake domes on Diner counters. (I have two layers of Devil's Food Cake cooling on the counter as we speak. Now that's a Diner classic).

So true. Most diners in the south also offer a rotating selection that usually include coconut cake in its various forms, red velvet cake, white cake baked in a rectangular pan and usually with milk chocolate frosting, banana cake (not banana bread), pineapple upside down cake, German chocolate cake, angel food and chiffon cakes, as well as some local specialties.

When I was traveling while showing dogs, I almost always visited "mom & pop" diners for my meals when in the south and was rarely disappointed.

In other parts of the country I usually stuck to chain restaurants while on my own because diners on the whole did not seem as friendly as those in the south. There were some terrific exceptions that I found when they were recommended to me.

I remember with great fondness a diner outside Columbia, MO where I was served a wedge of a molasses stack cake that was amazing. Of course that was long before I had diabetes - no chance of having that today.

I've owned one cookbook for twenty-some years: Roadside Food by Leroy Woodson and Retro Diner by Linda Everett that I got several years ago.

Both have great diner recipes, if anyone is interested. ABE books has both.

Linda Everett authored several other "Retro" books, I have then all and they are worth having, in my opinion.

[JAZ]

The sandwich I ordered most often was a patty melt.

Me too. (Scroll down for a recipe.)

[Mjx]

. . . .

We're going to need an NYC diner topic too. I just ate at Veselka and was thinking, hmm, this place is better than most restaurants at twice the price. EJ's on the Upper West and Upper East are indeed pretty good. One of the best diners I've ever been to is Tom's in Brooklyn. But the diner I hit the most often, in part because of proximity, is the Westside Restaurant. They do a surprisingly good job on a lot of dishes, though their burger are weak. In my old neighborhood I thought Three Guys was quite good.

Thanks! Just noted these on my travel list, since I should be back in March. I haven't been to Veselka in ages; somehow, the crowd changed and the menu shifted accordingly, so I stopped going, but I should give it another go. I really miss the Potbelly Stove, on Christopher Street. Sometimes it was sort of horrible, but when it was good, it was brilliant.

[Fat Guy]

Egg dishes are made on the spot, and I suspect meatloaf tends to be homemade, and some must be roasting their own turkeys. Burgers of every sort arrive frozen. Probably the fries, too. That mushy diner corned beef hash is usually from one of those big cans.

Fries are frozen at Bouchon too. There are too few restaurants at any level making fries from raw potatoes.

The range of burger quality at diners is crazy, which is odd when you consider that a burger is one of the easiest things in the world to make well.

I've never had good hash in a diner. But you can add hash to the list of diner-type dishes I make at home with regularity. I think mine is better than that of any restaurant using the same ingredients. It's good, but I can't compete with the places that rely on heavy cream, clarified butter, etc. Wollensky's Grill, now that's great hash.

[Pierogi]

Pattie melts, burgers, chicken fried steak, meatloaf, tuna melts, all those oldies but goodies make a regular appearance in my kitchen and then on my table. Mashed potatoes are probably my favorite way to eat potatoes, I make them at least twice a month.

As a matter of fact, dinner tonight was Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes. With steamed cauliflower for a veg, and fresh pineapple chunks for dessert. I loves me some Salisbury steak.

[Fat Guy]

Started an NYC diner topic.

[Fat Guy]

Coincidentally, I had a diner breakfast yesterday (at EJ's in New York City) and figured I could get the ball rolling here with bad cell-phone photos of some of my favorite diner breakfast stuff:

Corned-beef hash and poached eggs (this is one of the few places that make it in-house, though I'm still not crazy about the finely-chopped/shredded style).

Bagel with lox, cream cheese, etc.

Mushroom omelet.

Scrambled eggs & home fries.

[gfweb]

Egg dishes are made on the spot, and I suspect meatloaf tends to be homemade, and some must be roasting their own turkeys. Burgers of every sort arrive frozen. Probably the fries, too. That mushy diner corned beef hash is usually from one of those big cans.

Fries are frozen at Bouchon too. There are too few restaurants at any level making fries from raw potatoes.

The range of burger quality at diners is crazy, which is odd when you consider that a burger is one of the easiest things in the world to make well.

I've never had good hash in a diner. But you can add hash to the list of diner-type dishes I make at home with regularity. I think mine is better than that of any restaurant using the same ingredients. It's good, but I can't compete with the places that rely on heavy cream, clarified butter, etc. Wollensky's Grill, now that's great hash.

How do you make your hash?

[Fat Guy]

Basically I make home fries and add cooked meat towards the end.

[gfweb]

onions?

[Fat Guy]

Correct. Chopped potatoes, diced onions, olive, salt, pepper, paprika, cooked on low-medium heat until almost done, finish with diced cooked meat (e.g., brisket) and a knob of butter.