Diners are wonderful, and very very much a metro-NY thing in this incarnation. (There are other diner types, excellent in their own ways, but they're sufficiently different as to be out of scope.) They build communities, too, and "Diner regulars" are a pretty ecumenical bunch.<p>Nearly everything I miss about NY has to do with food, and nearly all the food I miss is diner food: mystery meat gyros, the diner hamburger that's slightly too wet for the bun so you can't put it down once you pick it up, the right kind of natural-casing link sausages that snap when you bite into them, and above all, the matzoh ball soup: cure for everything. For dessert, rainbow cookies or a slice of pie from the glass rotating case -- and don't forget the weird chocolate mints on your way out.<p>A half-decent bagel, good pizza, and any bodgea's sausage egg and cheese on a roll round out my list of foods I atavistically seek out every time I'm within 40 miles of central park.
If you like this, you might also like This American Life's 24 Hours at the Golden Apple (2000):<p><a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/172/24-hours-at-the-golden-apple" rel="nofollow">https://www.thisamericanlife.org/172/24-hours-at-the-golden-...</a>
OK so just out of curiosity I looked at the newspaper date that Lynn is reading. "Chris Hardwick, King of the Nerds, Is Expanding His Empire" It is from April 7, 2016. Does that mean this thing took 2 years to come out or is she just reading an old newspaper? EducationLife which is on the table near her, folded in 2017<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/television/chris-hardwick-king-of-the-nerds-is-expanding-his-empire.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/television/chris-har...</a><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/saying-farewell-to-education-life.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/saying-f...</a>
One time I had jet lag and went to the neighborhood diner (in NYC) a bit on the earlier side, like 5 AM or so. For a random Tuesday morning it was interesting to see all sorts of people walk in after a night out (on a Tuesday morning no less!). Reminded me of how crazy the city is.
> perhaps the most famous diner scene after the orgasmic pastrami sandwich in “When Harry Met Sally”<p>Small and basically meaningless point, but Katz's is not a diner.