Hugo and his aunt Lily
Parkway Diner / Burlington, VT. ~ all pictures (embiggenable) • iPhone
Given the choice between a 4-star restaurant or an "original" / authentic bygone era diner, I'm chowin' down in the diner at the counter on a revolving stool or in a vinyl seat booth. Everything about the diner experience pricks my eye and gastronomic sensibilities.
Due to the fact that I am Hugo's (my grandson) personal hockey chauffeur, I get the opportunity to seek out and enjoy the diner experience all over the Northeast and Midwest US of A. And, I am quite happy to report that original / authentic diners are alive and doing well. In fact, there is a revival of sorts going on.
The Parkway Diner (seen here in this entry) in Burlington, Vermont is a revival case in point. I don't know the diner's history other than it was factory built, shipped to Burlington and opened in the 1950s. It was "reopened" in 2013. I have no idea what happened between those 2 dates but I would guess that, like many-but certainly not all-early era diners, it experienced a period of decline and either closed (or not) and was eventually rescued by a new owner.
What many (most?) new owners-many are chefs-have done is to preserve / restore / refurb the atmosphere of the places and create menus that honor the diner tradition of "home cooked" food but with a "twist". In the case of the Parkway Diner, their twist includes fresh local farm-to-table ingredients and, in addition to "standard" diner eats, creative menu items such as the Portobello mushroom hollandaise with spinach and roasted red peppers or the fried pork cutlet on a homemade cheddar biscuit with chipotle hollandaise breakfast sandwich.
Then there is our local diner ....
the Port Henry Diner + Abarth ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone