if you ever visit Austin do try Kerby Lane Cafe/Magnolia Cafe.
There's few places I've left a 1 star review, and sadly, Kerby was it.
The Classic American Diner
121–130 of 172 posts
Re: The Classic American Diner
#122No mention of New Jersey, sacrilege.
Re: The Classic American Diner
#123One of my hobbies is looking up old prices in the BLS CPI calculator to see what they would cost today (March 2026 is the latest data.) The June 1940 photograph along Hwy 1 in Maryland had $0.05 hotdogs ($1.17) and $0.10 burgers ($2.34). The Feb 1959 photograph from the NYC diner advertises a $0.45 burger ($5.14) and probably a $0.75 steak sandwich ($8.57)
I wonder if portion size is comparable. We may have inflation in more than one sense: prices have gone up, and perhaps the size of burgers and hot dogs have also increased. No doubt I can find portion size clues if I look around. Haven't done so yet.
One other thing to compare is business and health regulations. Compliance with that is certainly more involved and costly today than in 1940 and would account for part of the price.
Re: The Classic American Diner
#124I love diners but they aren't affordable anymore! I want a cheap simple meal and bad coffee. The diners that seem to survive in this market end up up-scaling their menus. : (
I desperately miss the 90's and the middle class we used to have. I also miss basic cheap eats. If someone tried to make an authentic type of diner today, it would immediately become swamped with influencers. How can I get away from all this? Is there a town somewhere where everyone is over 45 and there is no cell service and a full meal is $5? Heck I would settle for a small NorCal town that doesn't have gangs or me…
Your imagined past was enabled on the back of exploitation poor people and minorities.
Re: The Classic American Diner
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not in the US. See "portion distortion". https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1447051/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8667835/ Edit: hamburgers and hotdogs are pretty standardized though
Everyone knows what a quarter pounder is!
Or do they? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMNqJQaf08E
Re: The Classic American Diner
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not in the US. See "portion distortion". https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1447051/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8667835/ Edit: hamburgers and hotdogs are pretty standardized though
Everyone knows what a quarter pounder is!
One time when I was a kid and my dad and I were in line at Fuddruckers, we overhead someone else in line say "I don't think I could eat a third of a pound, so I'll have to get a half a pound instead. It's still a reference we laugh about over two decades later.
Re: The Classic American Diner
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, it's weird, NJ is pretty well-known for having iconic Diners. People from many different states will know about NJ diners. https://www.tastingtable.com/1203923/best-diners-in-new-jers...
And people not even from the states (like me) know about NJ diners because one saw the birth of Unicode :)
It's virtually guaranteed that much of the birth of Unix itself took place at NJ diners.
Re: The Classic American Diner
#128One of my hobbies is looking up old prices in the BLS CPI calculator to see what they would cost today (March 2026 is the latest data.) The June 1940 photograph along Hwy 1 in Maryland had $0.05 hotdogs ($1.17) and $0.10 burgers ($2.34). The Feb 1959 photograph from the NYC diner advertises a $0.45 burger ($5.14) and probably a $0.75 steak sandwich ($8.57)
One neat inflation calculation I stumbled on is that inflation since 1945 to today is ~20x, so, from the film-noir era to today,
5¢ = $1
25¢ = $5
$1 = $20
$5 = $100
Re: The Classic American Diner
#129Re: The Classic American Diner
#130NJ got snubbed in this submission. We still have tons of independent diners (around 450 according to this article: https://www.npr.org/2024/04/01/1241959475/new-jersey-diners-... )
Yeah, it's weird, NJ is pretty well-known for having iconic Diners. People from many different states will know about NJ diners. https://www.tastingtable.com/1203923/best-diners-in-new-jers...
I'm shocked that Tops earned #1 -- they did a remodel a few years ago and started taking reservations (and turning people away during busy periods if they didn't have one), and it's much less of a diner and much more of a restaurant nowadays.
Also, the Bendix Diner is closed, likely permanently, because of fire code violations.