- 4 months ago
New Jersey is the diner capital of America, boasting more than any other US state. But even in New Jersey, traditional, chrome-clad diners seem to be disappearing. Rising food costs, labor shortages, and competition from sit-down chains like Cracker Barrel and IHOP have all made it tough to be in the business. Yet, Tops, the state’s busiest diner, still serves 13,000 people a week. And Summit Diner, one of the state’s oldest, still slings out pancakes and Taylor Ham rolls from its tiny grill. So what happened to the all-American diner? And how, against steep odds, have Tops and Summit kept the Big Business of diners alive?
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00:00This is the kitchen behind one of America's largest diners.
00:06Tops in East Newark, New Jersey serves 13,000 people a week.
00:11Customers travel from all over the world to chow down on its 325 menu items.
00:18I not only like Tops, I love Tops.
00:20New Jersey is the diner capital of America, boasting more than any other state.
00:25These iconic restaurants, clad in chrome and marked by neon signs,
00:29used to be all the rage across the U.S.
00:32They are quintessentially American.
00:34So at any time, you'll have suits and you'll have guys with dirty overalls and everything in between.
00:40But now, traditional diners are disappearing.
00:43Don't call them diners anymore, call them unicorns. They're becoming extinct.
00:47It's estimated New Jersey lost 150 in the last decade.
00:51Summit Diner is one of the state's oldest and is one of the few remaining examples of the compact style of the 1920s.
00:58I'm kind of saddened because I might be the end of the line.
01:02So what happened to the iconic American diner?
01:05And why, against steep odds, have Tops and Summit kept the big business of diners alive?
01:11I went to Tops on a Wednesday morning, thinking it'd be a little slower. And I was very wrong.
01:20Growing up a couple blocks away, you always hear, you know, how busy Tops Diner is.
01:24And until you work here, you never realize how much product this restaurant goes through.
01:31We use between 200 and 300 pounds hash browns from Monday to Friday and weekends is over 300 pounds. Easy.
01:40Each week, chefs crack 21,600 eggs.
01:44They'll end up in classic diner favorites like omelets and pancakes.
01:48If you want pancakes at 8 o'clock at night, 9 o'clock at night, we got it.
01:52No judgment? No judgment.
01:54They're also serving some local New Jersey delicacies like these disco fries smothered in cheese and this homemade gravy.
02:01We're going old school and we're roasting the bones. We're roasting the vegetables. We're not taking any shortcuts here.
02:06The dish is so popular, each week they go through 2,400 pounds of fries.
02:12We need a walk-in dedicated just for french fries. We need a fryer just for french fries.
02:17It takes a team of dozens of chefs rotating through these kitchens.
02:21They have to be ready to fire just about anything.
02:24People are ordering pastas, you know, with Alfredo sauce at 8.30 in the morning.
02:32The original Tops, founded in 1942, was a lot smaller.
02:36My dad, you know, he was Mr. Tops.
02:39You know, he would be serving coffee in an Armani suit.
02:43Jimmy Golimus' father brought the joint back in 1972 after moving here from Greece.
02:48If you came to my restaurant in the 80s and 90s at 2, 3 in the morning, you wouldn't believe.
02:54You'd have, like, wise guys, drunk dealers, and then, like, a police officer, a nurse.
03:00Like, it was insane.
03:03Jimmy's dad remodeled twice, but the big transformation came in 2020.
03:08Jimmy and his brothers took out a $15 million loan to rebuild, adding takeout and more seats, parking, and kitchen space to keep up with soaring demand.
03:18Today, we're bringing in the world's biggest drink corral.
03:23But then the pandemic hit.
03:26We lost my dad during COVID, too.
03:28It broke us, you know, it broke us.
03:32To honor their father, the brothers got the new space up and running.
03:35It's three times the size of the original.
03:38This is your typical, like, diner configuration line.
03:41What we did was we stretched it out a little bit.
03:44There's no back station.
03:46No one's hiding in this whole restaurant.
03:48So everyone that works here is at the same level.
03:50The working conditions are a lot better.
03:53And that's important.
03:55Or else, how are you going to last?
03:57Got the old diner.
03:58You ready?
03:59It's like 120 degrees in the kitchen, guys.
04:02You'd see blind cooks, right, that started, like, first day.
04:08And they would be like, I'm taking my break.
04:10And they'd never show up again.
04:12This area is for prep.
04:15Here, chefs are boiling loads of spaghetti, smashing dozens of avocados for guacamole,
04:21and hand-wrapping these Philly cheesesteak egg rolls.
04:31At this station, chefs are hand-breading chicken for the number one seller, chicken and waffles.
04:36They're also dishing out creative takes on typical diner fare, like Latin steak and eggs and Mexico City burgers.
04:42I would say the menu here is probably the most expansive diner menu in New Jersey.
04:47This is so overwhelming, yeah.
04:49That's Peter Genovese.
04:51He literally wrote the book on New Jersey diners.
04:54Topps Diner East Newark could make a claim to being New Jersey's best-known diner.
05:00It is certainly the most acclaimed diner.
05:02Just listen to this place.
05:04You know, you feel like you're at some sort of interstate truck stop.
05:07Everybody's talking.
05:09There's all different kinds of mix of people.
05:12The disco fries?
05:13First, Peter had me order New Jersey's finest.
05:16Oh, my goodness.
05:18We wanted the large size.
05:20This is huge.
05:21It's a mountain.
05:22Oh, my God.
05:23It just became the quintessential Jersey late-night food.
05:27Go to the disco or nightclub or you're already hungover.
05:31You're drunk.
05:32What goes down better than this?
05:34I just want to show you the comparison to my head.
05:37This has some girth to it.
05:38I can see why people would like this after a night out when they just want to be cozy and warm, but also a little sultry and do a bad thing.
05:56And we weren't the only ones enjoying the food.
05:59With 400 seats, Topps is nothing like your typical diner.
06:03Diners definitely didn't used to look like this.
06:06And believe it or not, they didn't start in New Jersey.
06:09Diners can trace their roots back to Rhode Island in 1872.
06:14From his horse-drawn wagon, Walter Scott sold sandwiches and pies to newspaper workers on the night shift.
06:20And it was a hit.
06:22Fifteen years later, a guy from Massachusetts put a kitchen and standing room for customers inside his lunch wagon.
06:28It was still narrow and long, so it could easily be moved on roads.
06:31Then in the 1910s, diner manufacturers like Jerry O'Mahoney from New Jersey popularized a larger stationary lunch wagon.
06:39These were for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
06:42They could be ordinately decorated with stained glass windows, varnished wood, and custom lettering.
06:48These were so fancy, owners started calling them diners, possibly taking inspiration from the fabulous dining cars on trains.
06:56Jerry O'Mahoney and dozens of others in New Jersey opened factories to pump out thin, prefab diners that were the perfect size to be shipped by rail or pulled behind a truck across the country.
07:07They were wide enough for only a kitchen, a counter, and a few stools.
07:11Post-World War II was the golden age.
07:14It's estimated that 20 prefab diner manufacturers had popped up, shipping out more than 6,000 across the U.S.
07:21Up to a third of them were New Jersey-made.
07:24Then diners began moving from city centers to the suburbs and getting bigger.
07:29Highways are expanding. Car ownership is huge.
07:33People, especially white people, are moving out to the suburbs, right?
07:37They wanted cheap, hot meals, but on the road.
07:42And so that was a niche that a lot of diners filled once driving became such an integral part of American society.
07:49Which is why New Jersey was a perfect place for diners.
07:53It had the best highway system in the country.
07:56The state was densely populated with working-class folks looking for affordable eats.
08:01And it was a natural stopping point for travelers between big cities like Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia.
08:08Around this time, a lot of Greek immigrants from war-torn Europe worked their way up to owning many diners.
08:15It was a pretty easy way to start a business.
08:18You could buy a prefab diner, have it show up.
08:20If your English wasn't great, that was okay because it was sort of very domain-specific.
08:24You just needed to know the menu items.
08:27Their restaurants were known for colorful booths, easy-to-clean stainless steel, long-formica countertops lined with stools,
08:34tiled floors, and neon signs that grabbed drivers' attention from the road.
08:39With their bright colors and cozy feel, these restaurants became a symbol of American optimism in a lot of ways.
08:46I think the diner to people outside the U.S. is often seen as a quintessentially American thing.
08:53A grilled cheese, or a hamburger, or eggs and toast and bacon in the morning.
08:59That is sort of the baseline of American food.
09:03You'll see diners as the backdrop for classic films and TV shows like Grease, American Graffiti, and Gilmore Girls.
09:12Eight million people live in New Jersey. I would say 70 to 80 percent of them have been to a diner at some point in their life.
09:19That's how integral diners are to the Jersey experience.
09:23Despite becoming an American icon, diners started stumbling well before they graced the silver screen.
09:30Jerry O'Mahony shuttered his business in the 1950s, just as big fast food chains were launching.
09:37McDonald's opened its first franchise restaurant in 1955.
09:41Ten years later, it had 700 locations. Burger King had around 250.
09:47These fast food chains were cheap and they were fast.
09:51And when you think about that, that's sort of what diners used to do.
09:55But fast food maybe did it better in some cases.
09:58Franchises also offered an easier way into the restaurant business.
10:02If you can pay the money, the franchise fee, then they just give you all the instructions on how to run a McDonald's.
10:08Because you've got to think, do I want to run a restaurant with this national name that's already recognized?
10:13Or do I want to spend all this time building up my own business?
10:16In the 1950s, sit-down franchises such as Denny's, Waffle House, and IHOP launched, trying to replicate that diner feel.
10:24What do you do when you go there? You order a stack of pancakes or maybe some toast and bacon and eggs or a burger.
10:29Except instead of a local diner, it's a national chain.
10:33Cracker Barrel popped up in 1969, aiming to lure motorists off the highway.
10:38Those took aim at the same business that diners had always tapped into.
10:43Diners responded by adding pages and pages of new menu items to capture changing tastes.
10:48But it wasn't enough. By the 2000s, the number of diners in the U.S. had dropped to 2,500, less than half of the peak.
10:56Some prefabs had fallen into disrepair, and owners of the oldest ones were dealing with nearly century-old buildings.
11:03A lot of the companies that made these prefab diners just aren't around anymore.
11:07So you can imagine if you're an owner of one of these diners and you're still trying to run it, where do you find replacement parts?
11:14It's probably kind of a hard task.
11:16Just like they always have, owners faced long working hours.
11:20It never stops. It's a 24-hour job.
11:23But now, diner bosses are up against headwinds, such as labor shortages, rising rents, and soaring food costs.
11:30This will be the last business on earth I'd want to be in.
11:33In the last decade, it's estimated New Jersey has lost 150 of them.
11:38There's one in Route 22, actually. They closed.
11:41And it's sad, because it's part of the United States culture.
11:47You see a lot of places closing down. Nobody wants to put the hours and the work into doing this.
11:52And while these iconic American eateries seem to be struggling across the state, this one has survived for almost a century.
11:59And we're going to go figure out why.
12:01Summit Diner, built by Jerry O. Mahoney Diner Company, is one of the few remaining examples of a prefab.
12:08Raj, that's you, right?
12:09Yes, sir.
12:10Give me 10.
12:11It's tiny, with just 40 seats inside, but it feels like a movie set.
12:17The diner opened in 1928, and legend has it, Ernest Hemingway ate here.
12:22I wasn't around, so I can't tell you.
12:24Owner Jimmy Gerberis' family bought Summit Diner in 1964, after immigrating from Greece.
12:30He started working here when he was 19.
12:32That's my dad's brother, my Uncle John, when I started, in 1980.
12:37I used to have limos parked from front, two blocks up.
12:41I mean, they used to run the financials in New York.
12:44And then with every crash, you got less and less and less.
12:47And now I depend on the everyday guy that comes in here, construction, all that kind of stuff, the workers.
12:53Unlike his shifting clientele, the inside hasn't changed much in the last 90 years.
12:59Everything in here from 1939, the tile.
13:02The wood is all mahogany.
13:04Black Italian marble, 1939.
13:06The stools were here.
13:08Those were the original tables from 1939.
13:10Even the tops.
13:11The black tile, I had to put it in because I couldn't find, replace it.
13:16You know, of course I had to redo it for Mike on the ceilings, because it got real dingy.
13:20My father-in-law cleaned everything with Easy Off.
13:23And it killed.
13:25Just ate through it.
13:27Jimmy even rings up orders on this cash register he estimates is over 75 years old.
13:32Cash only, of course.
13:34Now we're writing notes.
13:36But back in the days when I started, it was singing.
13:39Two eggs are easy.
13:40Cormier hash.
13:41One side of sausage.
13:43You just have to memorize.
13:45So it was crazy.
13:47And still, we don't have credit cards.
13:49We don't have the calculator and pen.
13:51That's it. That's all you use here.
13:53This classic look and feel has earned the restaurant a lot of buzz lately.
13:58I guess it's just the nostalgia of it.
14:00Tour groups from all over the world stop by.
14:03Peter named Summit the best diner in New Jersey.
14:06If somebody from out of state, from Idaho or Missouri, they say, take me to a Jersey diner.
14:11I've never seen one.
14:13Take a beer.
14:14This is a very sort of classic 30s, 40s diner.
14:18You know, it's not like the Topps diner where the menu's the size of the telephone hook.
14:22Jimmy has barely touched the menu, stretched across the top of the diner.
14:27His most popular item is a Jersey staple, the Taylor ham roll.
14:32It's New Jersey's unofficial breakfast sandwich.
14:35You know, I think if it was somehow banned, I'm not sure what we would do for breakfast.
14:40Seriously, in Jersey.
14:42Jimmy starts his with two thick slices from this giant log of pork.
14:47I mean, it's basically a lot of ham.
14:49I don't know what they mix in it.
14:51I have no clue.
14:52Chefs slash the edges so the slices don't shrink,
14:55and then throw them onto the grill to brown up.
14:58So he said that he does two and that he cuts them thicker
15:01because he has less cooktop space than like a Topps, who might give you three.
15:07The meat is slapped on a roll from a local bakery and layered with an egg and melty cheese.
15:12People in northern New Jersey call the sandwich a Taylor ham after the company that makes the pork.
15:17But in other areas of Jersey, it's known simply as a pork roll.
15:21She's about to try a Taylor ham bacon cheese for the first time in her life.
15:26In my entire life.
15:27Here we go.
15:28No pressure.
15:29Oh my gosh.
15:30This looks so good.
15:32Got a hmm.
15:37Somehow it tastes nostalgic, even though I've never had it before.
15:41If that makes sense.
15:42Got salty.
15:43Oh, it's so good.
15:45The cheese does, the cheese carries a lot.
15:50You got to go to Jersey for at least one reason, the Taylor ham sandwiches.
15:54Really good coffee and really good unidentified processed pork.
15:59You did good, Jimmy.
16:01Despite all his years slinging out Jersey classics, Jimmy says there are some things he would never put on his menu.
16:08Avocados, one of my pet peeves.
16:10I mean, I can get it, do it, but we don't know how to work with it and it goes bad.
16:15The avocado toast ended up on their menu.
16:17That would pretty much be a sign of the apocalypse.
16:20Which is why Jimmy sticks to the classics.
16:2345 years, I think I got it down.
16:25This is what we do.
16:27His tiny grills are loaded up with homemade corned beef hash, pancakes and omelets.
16:33How many eggs do you think you go through on a Saturday?
16:36On a Saturday, close to two cases, which is a case is about 30 dozen.
16:41That's about 720 eggs.
16:44That's not bad.
16:45For a little place like this, that's a lot of eggs.
16:47And a lot of running around.
16:49I don't know where all these people come from on the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
16:53It's a zoo.
16:54You might have to wait 20 minutes to get your meal.
16:57Which, that was unheard of.
16:59They got to realize, you know, it's a five foot grill.
17:02May, I'll do the counter.
17:03You do this.
17:04Good morning.
17:05Good morning.
17:06How is it?
17:07Hey, good.
17:08How are you?
17:09Good.
17:10Even on this busy Wednesday, the rest of our food came out within 10 minutes.
17:14We got the healthy diet coming.
17:16You see the avocado in there anywhere?
17:19I heard avocado is going to be on the menu soon.
17:22That's what I heard.
17:23Sources tell me.
17:24Never.
17:25Never.
17:26So where's the Greek influence in this food?
17:29The cooks.
17:31Actually, there's oregano.
17:32There you go.
17:33In the corned beef fat.
17:35I love that.
17:37I love the crispy bits in the potatoes and the hash.
17:42Mmm.
17:43It's good sausage.
17:46The sausage, yeah.
17:48It's really fragrant, like kind of Christmas-y vibes.
17:51We'll try the pancake, one of my favorite foods.
17:54All the while, the classic diner coffee was flowing.
17:57Why don't you have a little coffee with your milk?
17:58I just try to make mine into basically coffee.
18:00Why don't you just like warm up some milk?
18:02And we weren't the only ones enjoying our food.
18:05This place was buzzing.
18:07Look, we've eaten in some of the finest restaurants in New York and the world.
18:10I would sooner come here.
18:12It feels like Jimmy and his staff are really important to this town.
18:16It's an icon.
18:17And Jimmy is kind of an awesome guy, so they go together really well.
18:22One of the things we always talk about in Summit is the character of our town, and this
18:27is part of that character.
18:28It's part of the charm.
18:29My closest hunting buddy.
18:30I've been here like, what, 14 to 15 years, and I don't have any family here.
18:38So all the people from the Summit Diner, they just kind of support me.
18:42I fell down and I broke the head of the TV.
18:45I wasn't able to walk for two years.
18:47Two years.
18:48And he used to go to my house and hand me food, money.
18:52Hey, my angel.
18:55He can be a pain in my butt, too.
18:58And not only them, but the people that come here.
19:02So I love this place.
19:04Despite all the love, Jimmy worries the restaurant might finish with him.
19:08I overeducated my kids.
19:09Nobody wants to do this anymore.
19:11You know, I have to hand it down.
19:13I'm kind of saddened because I might be the end of the line.
19:17Could it be Summit without Jimmy, though?
19:19I don't know, but it might have to because my wife is getting a little anxious to start traveling.
19:25I'd be heartbroken if there was somebody taking it over.
19:29I think the town would rise up in arms if somebody decided to tear it down.
19:35It's getting harder to run, you know, finding help to run the business.
19:39You need a lot of people to run a diner.
19:41Then there's the soaring food prices.
19:44Eggs you heard about.
19:46Before COVID, we were paying $1, $1.20 a dozen.
19:49It shot up to $8.60, I think, the top.
19:52And now we're like $3.75.
19:55That Taylor ham was under $3 a pound before the pandemic.
19:59Now we were paying $4.75.
20:01Did you have to raise them at all?
20:02I did.
20:03I had to do it after COVID because everything went up, but I'm still, my prices are still not bad.
20:09But it seems Summit's not alone in this challenge.
20:12In the last couple of years, there have been a couple of dozen diners that have closed and not reopened or torn down.
20:18Some diners are just sitting there waiting for a buyer.
20:21I don't think there's a sort of disease or something that's working its way in eliminating diners one by one.
20:28And I think it's just happening in the restaurant business in general.
20:32When diners close, the loss can hit communities especially hard.
20:36They're not just restaurants, but they're a piece of history that we're losing.
20:40You can go to a diner, get a decent meal, and meet people who lived in your neighborhood, right?
20:46You become a regular, you know, you feel a sense of belonging.
20:49And I think this is something we've lost a little bit in America.
20:52You know, waitresses, they don't know you and they call you honey. I love that.
20:57That's why when Topps introduced a much bigger, louder concept, it shocked lifelong customers who were used to the cozy, homey feel of the original location.
21:05More people on the older side missed that small, intimate feel.
21:10But once the check comes, I walk over to the table and they're happy.
21:15Topps' new space still pays homage to its past with its neon sign out front, chrome details, bar stools, and booths.
21:24I didn't believe in getting rid of the good stuff. I just wanted to change the culture and work more efficiently.
21:29But those changes seem to stretch the definition of a diner.
21:32For one, it's huge, a far cry from the skinny eateries of the 1930s.
21:38And it's got liquor. Bartenders sling out cocktails any time of day.
21:43We got a DJ spinning over here. I'm bumping music.
21:47Topps also has its own butcher room.
21:49We cut our own meats. We also have meats cut from us, from Pat Lafredo, who we use.
21:55And a bake shop on site.
21:57Okay, cookies here. What are we cooking in here, guys, right now?
21:59We got cheesecake and Fred Lecher.
22:01Is that cheesecake right there?
22:03So that's like your old-school classic cheesecake.
22:06You know, we got it in a water bath.
22:08It's the same way we've been doing it since the 70s.
22:11We got the recipe from the Claremont Diner in Newark.
22:16We're talking like Mount Rushmore diners.
22:18It's not just for our dessert menu.
22:20The Big Shot makes all the pancake batter, the waffle batter, French toast.
22:24You know, they juice over here.
22:26They do sears for the rest.
22:28Like, there's so many things that they do that help the restaurant flow.
22:32This Tres Leches is one of their best sellers.
22:35But it's not just the cake.
22:37A lot of the menu takes inspiration from well beyond New Jersey.
22:41You'll be coming here for months and you'll never try the same thing.
22:44I'm seeing jerk chicken.
22:46Yeah.
22:47Huevos rancheros.
22:48A Dominican breakfast.
22:49Right.
22:50Eggs Italiano.
22:51The meatloaf.
22:52Yeah, I love the meatloaf.
22:53Chicken farm.
22:54I love the meatloaf.
22:55Panela vodka.
22:56A Mexico City burger.
22:57These are like cheesesteak egg rolls.
22:59Yeah, cheesesteak, you know, it's a South Jersey thing.
23:02So a little like Philly, Asian, but somehow we're in New Jersey combination.
23:08Yeah, there's no special way to eat it.
23:10You can have the chicken separately from the waffles.
23:12You can put the chicken on the waffles.
23:15Chicken looks good, like nice and crispy.
23:17Kind of tastes like a grandma's back there cooking this chicken and waffles.
23:21Yeah, yeah.
23:22The Latin eggs were delicious.
23:24Oh my gosh, there's a tortilla underneath here.
23:27What?
23:28That's so fun.
23:29So you've got some chiles, you've got pickled onions, some salsa, tortilla, peppers, avocado.
23:37It's fun to see the avocado because Jimmy from Summit said he would never touch it, you know?
23:41And here there's avocado toast with salmon on it for like 20 bucks.
23:45So I feel like there's room, pun intended, for creativity at this diner that I, like I don't know if Summit could venture into something like this without an uproar, right?
23:57He would never have cheesesteak or spring rolls on his menu.
24:02Why do you think Topps can get away with this?
24:04Well, they're so big.
24:05They order so much in volume so they can order a lot of different things, throw it all on the menu, see what works.
24:11You need the volume.
24:13I need to make enough income so I could do what I need to do because how then can I experiment?
24:20This isn't the first time Topps has broken diner tradition.
24:24In 2006, it stopped opening for 24 hours a day.
24:27It was like breaking news on CNN.
24:32Other owner called up, what's going on?
24:36Is it dangerous at the time?
24:37No.
24:38Another thing that sets Topps apart from other diners?
24:41It's a little pricey.
24:43I mean, chicken.
24:44I mean, a $7 latte?
24:45Yeah.
24:46Yeah, chicken dishes, $25, almost $30.
24:49Spaghetti, yeah, spaghetti dishes, $15, $20 bucks.
24:53While pancakes here are only a few dollars more than at Summits, the omelets, disco fries, and egg platters are almost double the price.
25:00You know, they're reasonably affordable, but some of the eggs got to pay the mortgage.
25:06But all these changes seem to have worked.
25:08I like the ambiance.
25:09I like the people.
25:10I'm here every time I'm off from work.
25:13The food is delicious.
25:15You know what I will say is I do think that this has a younger audience than Summit.
25:20And we went on the same days at the same time.
25:23Look at what I have.
25:24I got 180 parking spots.
25:25I got a 16,000 square.
25:27But this is like the Vatican of diners.
25:29Right?
25:30And I want to like...
25:31You didn't say like the Acropolis.
25:33Yeah, I should have said the Acropolis, right?
25:35I think a lot of people see the size of this place and they're like, man, not a diner anymore.
25:39You know, like what...
25:40Yeah, always.
25:41You're not a diner.
25:42You're not a diner.
25:43You're not a diner.
25:44I don't care.
25:45I love it.
25:46Look at the menu.
25:47I mean, it's a diner menu.
25:48I don't know.
25:49I don't know what we are.
25:50We're like...
25:51We're the unicorn.
25:52I think in America today, you see diners like Topps that have pushed the envelope a
25:56little bit on what a diner can be in order to remain relevant.
26:01At the same time, you also see diners like Summit, which have remained a little more
26:05traditional and close to what people expect a diner to be in some cases.
26:10And there's room for both.
26:12Peter sees this as a sign that we don't need to worry about diners completely disappearing.
26:17Diners are forever.
26:18I mean, I really believe that.
26:20You know, will there be more diners closing in the next couple of years?
26:24Sure.
26:25But a diner can thrive anywhere.
26:27These places do feel like unicorns.
26:30More than a business, they feel like community centers for friendly folks from all walks of life
26:35to converge over a cup of coffee and a stack of pancakes.
26:38I'm fortunate and grateful because I have them as my bosses and the people here are very, very nice.
26:45I hope these keep us going until one more hundred years, probably.
26:50One thing that I've heard is, like, diners, waitresses say,
26:54Hi, honey, how you doing?
26:55Hi, sweetheart.
26:56Do you call your clients then?
26:58Sometimes I do.
26:59When I do it, it's because I'm hungry.
27:01I'm like, yeah, honey, I'm coming.
27:02I'm coming.
27:03I'm coming, honey.
27:05I'm coming, honey.
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