There are people who think of a diner as just a place to get a meal, and then there are those of us who understand diners, who cherish them, who seek them out and settle into them. We are recharged by time spent in diners in the way that adults who emerged from happy childhoods are recharged by a visit to their parents’ home. Every diner is different; every diner is exactly the same. The ideal of a diner—its promise, its function—is not to be great but to be there.

– Helen Rosner

Helen Rosner truly gets diners.

She’s right. All a diner needs to be, is there.

Rosner, Helen. “The Best Diners Are Still Just Diners: Old John’s.” The New Yorker, January 7, 2024. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-food-scene/the-best-diners-are-still-just-diners-old-johns.