New Hampshire Diners
History
Great diner culture is not confined to the popular 1982 movie, “Diner.” It also is alive and sizzling in authentic diners throughout New England. Various places try to claim themselves as the “home of the diner,” but Providence, Rhode Island, in fact, is. The creator of the diner is Walter Scott, a part time pressman at the Providence Journal newspaper. In 1872, Scott began to sell prepared food from a converted horse-drawn freight wagon outside the newspaper's building.
As lunch wagons were becoming popular, entrepreneurs began buying obsolete horse-drawn streetcars and converting them to diners. By the 1930s, diners began to adopt a more streamline, modern, railroad car appearance. In the 1950s, diners began to lose a share of their market to the new fast food establishments. A revival began in the late 1970’s. New England hot spots for diner history lovers also include Worcester, Massachusetts, home of the former Worcester Lunch Car Company. Here are some highlights.
The Red Arrow Diner
61 Lowell St.
Manchester, New Hampshire
603-626-1118
Slogan: “We really serve it on a blue plate” the diner says of its Blue Plate Specials.
The Tilt'n Diner
Exit 20 off Route 93
Tilton, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-286-2204
Slogan: Think "Happy Days" in New Hampshire!
Plain Jane's
Route 25
Rumney, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-786-2525
Notable: This beautiful 1954 O’Mahoney sits in the middle of nowhere, on a long stretch of mostly deserted but highly traveled mountain highway. A tasteful and tasty experience.
Web Sites
Diner Reading
Lost Diners and Roadside Restaurants of New England and New York, Will Anderson, 2001
American Diner, Richard Gutman, 1979.
Diners: People and Places, Gerd Kittel, 1990.
Blue Plate Specials and Blue Ribbon Chefs: The Heart and Soul of America's Great Roadside Restaurants, Jane Stern, 2001.
Greasy Spoon. A quarterly periodical.
Diner Slang
Some diner slang –- like “cup of Joe” for a cup of coffee or “Adam and Eve on a raft” for two eggs on toast -- has entered mainstream American English, but much of this unique language has be consigned to background chatter in 1940s-style film noir movies. But people who relish diner slang have dredged up a lot of it. You might try it on your soup jockey (waitress) at your next meal at a diner to see if you can strike a linguistic mother lode of diner history.
Take breakfast, for instance. You might open with a java (coffee) and a sun kiss (orange juice) or a baby juice (glass of milk) and then move on to a couple of life preservers (doughnuts) or a stack of blowout patches (pancakes) with Vermont (maple syrup). How about scrambled eggs? Tell the waitress to wreck ’em. A shingle with a shimmy and a shake is toast with jelly. If you’re feeling international, ask for toasted English muffins, also known a burn the British. If you are in the mood for risk, tell the waitress to sweep the kitchen or clean up the kitchen and she’ll bring you a plate of hash.
Lunchtime is the right time for Noah’s boy (Ham) on bread – a ham sandwich. For a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion, your waitress may tell the cook to burn one, take it through the garden, and pin a rose on it. Then, there are the details: cow paste for butter; dog soup for a glass of water; an M.D. for a Dr. Pepper; sea dust for salt; Mike and Ike for salt and pepper shakers.
If this list doesn’t cover your dining needs, the American Diner Museum can tell you much more.