From their plants, the diners were driven across the nation, their oblong, RV-like structure lending them to transport via flatbed trucks.

They all had the same silvery exterior, the same counter, the same open kitchen, the same cramped quarters. Many such diners were mass-produced in factories in East Coast hubs, each one a cookie-cutter copy of every other. They had indoor bathrooms, and booths, so you didn’t have to sit at a counter.” This meant that the womenfolk wouldn’t have to rub elbows with stinky and suspicious males, and that diners would henceforth be viable date night locations (Danny and Sandy’s misadventure notwithstanding). “That was when many diners were spiffing up,” Stern says, “and trying to welcome ladies. In many cases, these establishments were, in fact, retrofitted boxcars, placed outside blue-collar workplaces to provide sustenance to the late-night crowds, with little emphasis on nutrition or decorum.įood critic and diner buff Michael Stern, co-author (with his wife Jane) of the Roadfood book series, recounts the transformation diners underwent in the Roaring Twenties, when young, fashionable women were out on the town in force, looking for a good time and unafraid to drain their pocketbooks. Later, it was applied to rough-and-tumble eateries that catered to factory hands in late-1800s industrial America. The name “diner” first referred to railway cars in which riders chowed down (compare “sleepers”). What is it about cheap eats, long hours, counters, and booths that so consistently captures the American imagination? Putting a finger on it is no mean feat, but unpacking the history crammed tight within diners’ walls seems like a fine place to start. “You meet the most delicious people,” she says, “and it’s just fantastic. People actually talk to each other.” Half the fun, in Boyle’s view, is striking up off-the-wall dialogues with strangers-an increasingly rare activity in the smartphone era.

“There’s nothing like it! It’s a dying art form,” she says, a hint of wistfulness in her voice. More than anything, Boyle adores the casual camaraderie of a countertop meal. Actress Lara Flynn Boyle, who portrayed “Twin Peaks” ’ Donna Hayward in the 1990s, says she once waited tables herself at the venerable Ann Sather restaurant in her native Chicago (the cinnamon rolls are legendary).

Odyssey diner