ARE THERE ANY MORE REAL DINER’S?

ARE THERE ANY MORE REAL DINER’S?

Gone the Way of Drive In’s

By Jack Coll

Donna and I took a business trip recently, a four hour drive to New Haven, Connecticut, well just outside New Haven to a town called East Berlin.  We said goodbye to Conshohocken at 8:00 AM and arrived at our destination in Connecticut around noon.  We met our contact at the Fletcher Company, took care of a little business,  and headed for lunch waiting on a phone call with the good or bad news about our well used under-pinner, (a piece of equipment that nails our frames, joining our corners from underneath the frame.)

Neither Donna nor I was in a mood for fast food, besides we needed to kill an hour or two waiting on news from the Fletcher rep, and there it was, “Uncle D’s Diner.”  We wander in, took a seat, and along comes this wonderful waitress, actually a diner waitress, you know, she knows three quarters of the people in the place and everyone else is “Hon,” as in “What can I get you to drink “Hon.”

We ordered, a turkey club for Donna and grilled ham and cheese for me, we’re waiting and chatting, and I’m looking around the diner, taking in the atmosphere, a family business no doubt.  The sandwiches were good, diner good, and I don’t say that in a bad way, along came the waitress, “can I get you a refill on that Hon.”

So I’m working this hand dipped vanilla milkshake over, with the little black specs in the bottom of the glass, and these Willie Nelson lyrics came into my head, “Are there any more real cowboys, left out in these hills,”  And I get to singing in my head, “Are there any more real diner’s, in and around Conshohocken.”  I know the first thing everyone’s gonna yell out is how about Andy’s Diner?  Well Andy’s Diner is a good restaurant, but not necessarily a diner.

I think we need to define “Diner!”  First of all a real diner has a row of stools where patrons can belly up to the counter, it the restaurant doesn’t have a row of stools and a counter, it’s certainly not a diner.  Real diners have handmade Rice Pudding, served in a tall glass with whipped cream on top.  Diners have a pie case, just opposite the row of stools, for all to see, along with Banana Cream Pie, Lemon Meringue Pie, assorted fruit pies, apple, pumpkin, and so on and a number of other deserts which by the way, none of them are good for you.  Real diners have diner booths, not restaurant booths.  While dining at a diner, no one is eves-dropping on you because they don’t give a crap what you’re talking about, sometimes in a finer, more up-scale restaurant it always seems just as you say “did you hear about?????,” it turns out to be an “E. F. Hutton moment” for every other person in the joint.

Diners have the perfect diner atmosphere, in every real diner, that atmosphere cannot be achieved in any other restaurant, no matter how hard they try.  Diners still hand write their checks, and slap it face down on the table when you’re finished eating, just as the waitress says “Can I take them plates for ya, Hon.  Real diner waitresses can laugh, while talking to a customer at one end of the counter, yell down to the other end of the counter, “Hey Bobby, you hear what Jimmy’s saying?”  Real diners still make ice tea by the pitcher, and real diner waitresses have a way of looking tired and beautiful at the same time, no matter what the age.

So this brings me back to “Are there any more real diners, in and around Conshohocken?”  Well Bill Pounds opened his diner at Fourth Avenue and Fayette Street back in 1945 and made it quite a successful business.   Bill sold the business to Carl Aumann in 1950 and Carl made Carl’s Diner a place where everyone knew your name type of diner.  Carl sold the diner to Bill Danitz in 1969, Bill and his son Bill Jr. ran one of the county’s favorite diners for thirty years known as “The 401 Diner.”  The diner continued for another decade by Evan Brodie, 401 Fayette Street remained a diner for more than sixty years.  No longer a diner as Pudges now serves the borough’s best cheese steaks.  Bill Pounds actually had another diner out on the ridge called “Bill’s Diner,” if I’m not mistaken it was where the Outback Steakhouse is currently located, or just a bump up or down the Ridge and let’s not forget what was known as the “Trolley Diner,” the real name was the Ridge Diner, located just across the street from Bill’s place, both establishments are of course long gone.

Conshohocken has had a number of soft diners over the years including May’s Diner on lower Fayette Street, now long gone.  What about outside Conshohocken? I used to spend a lot of time at the Valley Forge Diner on Rt. 202 in Upper Merion Township, and a number of Norristown’s diners are long gone including Danny’s Diner once located at the foot of the Norristown bridge on the Bridgeport side, while we’re in Bridgeport, George’s Diner located on DeKalb Street next to DeJohn’s Pizza for many years was a popular hot spot for many.  Of course there is Ray’s Diner on Germantown Pike, for years it was owned by Gus Mandracchia.  Just a few years ago they closed two other diners in Norristown, one of them on Main Street near Egypt Road and the other just a mile up the Ridge across from the Roman Greco Restaurant.  Just a few hundred yards further up the Ridge is a diner next to Dairy Queen, I don’t ever recall eating there so I’m not sure if it’s a real diner or just a sign on the window.

I’m not sure if West Conshohocken ever had a real diner, I certainly do miss having a real diner in the Conshy area.  I’m sure I missed mentioning a few, actually more than a few, be sure to let me know, and in the mean time I’ll just keep singing to myself, “Are there any more real diners, in the Conshohocken area.”