This week I take up the subject of the demise of the
American diner. There are lots of reasons why this is happening, which I didn’t
have space to examine in my column.
In the big cities the problem is rents. from big-city rents
— Chicago’s fondly remembered Cambridge Inn at Ohio and St. Clair in Streeterville, which closed in
2010, was never going to match what a bank branch, or fast food joint can pay
for that space — to microwaves and
the demise of the downtown and the rooming house and the spread of the
on-the-go culture.
Mainly, diners are dying because us diners are dying, Diners
appeal mainly to old people and people who live old people’s lives. People who
go alone to diners sit and read or they think. People who go with other people
go to talk. All three demand quiet, something restaurants of all other types no
longer offer. (I considered the plague
of music in restaurants in “Foreground music,” Dec. 5, 2013.) Consider this:
Ever try to count how many American movies are at least partly set in diners?
You can’t count that high. Why is that, when so few actual Americans spend time
in such places? Because movie-makers need places where people can talk, and a
diner is the best place for that.
But younger people don’t talk – indeed, if you’ve attempted
conversation, many of them can’t talk. They prefer to text, and you can text
anywhere.
Among the articles on the topic I found worth reading is
Greg Donaldson’s 2014 exploration in New York magazine, “The Death of the Diner:
What’s killing the cheeseburger deluxe?”
Ed Levine, founder of the Serious Eats web site and a man after my own heart, gave us “Why Diners Are More Important Than Ever, in
case anyone needed reminding.
Also worth a nibble or two is John Kass’s 2006 lament
about the Cambridge House in Chicago.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.
