I get a big kick when you wax poetic about the USA, it does come across that you genuinely love this place. I am trying to channel that love back to myself, as the last 10 years, and especially the past couple, have caused me to fall decidedly out of love with it. Trying to get back to a place where I am just riding this out and appreciating what is still good and great about America.
This year is the centennial anniversary of Route 66. I highly recommend a cross country road trip along the Mother Road. There are many wonderful diners along the way and celebratory activities through August.
FX Toole, who wrote the collection of short stories Million Dollar Baby is based on, writes incredibly lyrically about the joy of diners and pie. I remember it being one of the most exciting things about my first time in small-town America.
Loved this. These places and things get to America's roots, precious depositories of staying power like eternal verities, offering respites from fleeting fads and passing fancies with which the contemporary world is absurdly overwhelmed. Usually isolated within more modern confines, I recently found a whole town that filled the role of the "ordinary sublime," Mt. Airy, North Carolina. While Disney World's Main Street is a recreation, a fantasy, Mt. Airy's Main Street is the real thing that somehow, despite the present-day onslaught of national chains, remains frozen in time dating to the 1950s. Independent, family-owned hardware, furniture and drug stores, along with restaurants and diners, usually showing decades of wear, carry on as they long have, with aging clerks often still ringing up sales on ancient cash registers. The form of your purchase is secondary to the lovely intangibles that accompany it.
Thanks for this love letter to the quintessentially American diner. The diners I love map out my life. My meagre pilgrimage. Dot's in Wilmington, the Blue Benn in Bennington, the Sycamore in Bethel, South Street & Charlie's in Boston. These days closure is often looming. In this way they embody our grit too.
You share David Lynch’s understandable love of a slice of pie and a cup of hot coffee. And pecan pie is likely the highest and best use of the much-maligned high fructose corn syrup (Karo brand syrup being a principal ingredient of most recipes).
Read this post at a diner while waiting for my food on vacation. Guess I am not beating the allegations of being an American. Almost added pecan pie to my order, because I've never never had it hot, and you made it sound very good. Lovely tribute. I have to say I love greasy spoons in the UK just as much, and have often wished I could get beans on toast at American diners, despite the fact that my countrymen look at me as if I have proposed returning to Moloch-worship when I mention my fondness. "Beans? On toast? Are you mad?"
As a fan of pecan pie, this warms my heart and whets my appetite. Your Tocquevillian observations about America are delightful to read. For me, familiarity breeds more neglect than contempt. I often overlook these sorts of little graces, but American food culture is astonishing when you stop and pay attention. Tacos! Pizza! Falafel! Sub sandwiches! Sushi! Fried chicken! Pad Thai! Gyros! Dim sum! Poke! There’s wild diversity, and if you’re in anything bigger than a tiny town, it’s all available a quick drive from pretty much wherever you are. Thanks for bringing a new set of eyes to the stuff I see every day.
These places are a dying breed here in Chicago, alas. The waitresses were fantastic. a wholly original type. A history of diners in the words of their workers would be one of the greatest works ever written. It was a job for life, working at the diner, another thing vanishing. Your little tribute is really lovely.
Who knew pecan pie could make me feel so proud and happy?! And it begs the question I always ask: if stranded on a desert island and you can only have one, which is it? Cake or pie? It's a tough choice, but ultimately I go with pie. Now I know why. Thanks Henry!
In Cedar Creek, TX, just east San Antonio, a store named Berdoll Pecan Candy and Gift Co., has a pecan pie vending machine. Just look for the statue of a 14 ft squirrel outside.
When in Los Angeles, hit up a few of their fantastic diners. LA diners are throwbacks to the 60s in the best way and really encapsulate a core aesthetic vibe of Southern California. The food is really good, too!
I was telling someone to take their European visitor to diners instead of cafes and restaurants if you wanted to give them the true American experience.
I get a big kick when you wax poetic about the USA, it does come across that you genuinely love this place. I am trying to channel that love back to myself, as the last 10 years, and especially the past couple, have caused me to fall decidedly out of love with it. Trying to get back to a place where I am just riding this out and appreciating what is still good and great about America.
So sorry to have disappointed you. We'll try harder.
This year is the centennial anniversary of Route 66. I highly recommend a cross country road trip along the Mother Road. There are many wonderful diners along the way and celebratory activities through August.
https://route66centennial.org
FX Toole, who wrote the collection of short stories Million Dollar Baby is based on, writes incredibly lyrically about the joy of diners and pie. I remember it being one of the most exciting things about my first time in small-town America.
Loved this. These places and things get to America's roots, precious depositories of staying power like eternal verities, offering respites from fleeting fads and passing fancies with which the contemporary world is absurdly overwhelmed. Usually isolated within more modern confines, I recently found a whole town that filled the role of the "ordinary sublime," Mt. Airy, North Carolina. While Disney World's Main Street is a recreation, a fantasy, Mt. Airy's Main Street is the real thing that somehow, despite the present-day onslaught of national chains, remains frozen in time dating to the 1950s. Independent, family-owned hardware, furniture and drug stores, along with restaurants and diners, usually showing decades of wear, carry on as they long have, with aging clerks often still ringing up sales on ancient cash registers. The form of your purchase is secondary to the lovely intangibles that accompany it.
Thanks for this love letter to the quintessentially American diner. The diners I love map out my life. My meagre pilgrimage. Dot's in Wilmington, the Blue Benn in Bennington, the Sycamore in Bethel, South Street & Charlie's in Boston. These days closure is often looming. In this way they embody our grit too.
You share David Lynch’s understandable love of a slice of pie and a cup of hot coffee. And pecan pie is likely the highest and best use of the much-maligned high fructose corn syrup (Karo brand syrup being a principal ingredient of most recipes).
Read this post at a diner while waiting for my food on vacation. Guess I am not beating the allegations of being an American. Almost added pecan pie to my order, because I've never never had it hot, and you made it sound very good. Lovely tribute. I have to say I love greasy spoons in the UK just as much, and have often wished I could get beans on toast at American diners, despite the fact that my countrymen look at me as if I have proposed returning to Moloch-worship when I mention my fondness. "Beans? On toast? Are you mad?"
As a fan of pecan pie, this warms my heart and whets my appetite. Your Tocquevillian observations about America are delightful to read. For me, familiarity breeds more neglect than contempt. I often overlook these sorts of little graces, but American food culture is astonishing when you stop and pay attention. Tacos! Pizza! Falafel! Sub sandwiches! Sushi! Fried chicken! Pad Thai! Gyros! Dim sum! Poke! There’s wild diversity, and if you’re in anything bigger than a tiny town, it’s all available a quick drive from pretty much wherever you are. Thanks for bringing a new set of eyes to the stuff I see every day.
These places are a dying breed here in Chicago, alas. The waitresses were fantastic. a wholly original type. A history of diners in the words of their workers would be one of the greatest works ever written. It was a job for life, working at the diner, another thing vanishing. Your little tribute is really lovely.
The American diner is a truly wonderful institution, as is hot pecan pie. So glad you’re enjoying good things during your stay here.
Who knew pecan pie could make me feel so proud and happy?! And it begs the question I always ask: if stranded on a desert island and you can only have one, which is it? Cake or pie? It's a tough choice, but ultimately I go with pie. Now I know why. Thanks Henry!
In Cedar Creek, TX, just east San Antonio, a store named Berdoll Pecan Candy and Gift Co., has a pecan pie vending machine. Just look for the statue of a 14 ft squirrel outside.
Next time I’m in San Antonio!
Me too me too. Pecan pie is an "always a joy" joy. I don't even like sweets or pastries very much but PP is sublime.
When in Los Angeles, hit up a few of their fantastic diners. LA diners are throwbacks to the 60s in the best way and really encapsulate a core aesthetic vibe of Southern California. The food is really good, too!
I was telling someone to take their European visitor to diners instead of cafes and restaurants if you wanted to give them the true American experience.
Well, if you haven't already, you clearly need to watch the original twin peaks.