Diners for Easterners are Like Denny's (or Taco Bravo) for Californians?

In all these Boston/NY/NJ threads I'm seeing a trend of an all night binge ending up at a diner...and wondering if it's like our all night binges in Cali where we either end up at Denny's if you live in most of California or...

If you happen to grow up in that enchanted California town that is called Campbell you know all about

TACO BRAVO

The best outdoor taco bar with bug zappers for lighting that's open 24-hours. Gotta love their tacos that are 80% cheese, 5% shell, 5% lettuce and 2% meat. God only knows what makes up the 8% but when you've been 420'ing all night long you don't care...

Being an upstate NY transplant now in California, I truly miss diners. The diners here are all theme chains going for the 50s retro thing, but a real Northeast diner is independently owned (or a small local chain) open 24 hours and run by Greeks. They all pretty much have the same menu with a few variations, and sometimes they have a sald bar. In high school, we used to always go to the Lighthouse Diner in Hyde Park (practically across the street from FDR's house and right next to the roller rink) for a night of coffee, chain smoking, french fries and I'm Too Sexy (spanish version) and Mr. Brownstone (live version) on the jukebox. Ahhhh, those were the days! That place burned down (some say not all that accidentally) and they rebuilt it as a retro 50's place, though the food is still pretty much the same and it's still Greek - but they're not open 24hrs anymore).

Edited for spelling - I don't know where upstate NU is.

though you can still find lots of diners in central and western mass. My favorite breakfast dump closed a few years ago (owner retired, kids wanted no part of it).

Taco Bravo was 24hours...no jukebox and one of the few places you can smoke (outdoors). It was right between The Rock Bottom Bar and Puma's Nightclub - so it was very convenient after last call...

The food was, well, interesting...and I noticed a new Taco Bravo where I live now in Fremont - could it be theyre expanding?

in NYC they tend to be independant establishments (though very often greek owned and with similar menus--which are usually EXTENSIVE.

the quality, of course, varies but are dependable for what they are... how bad can you mess up scrambled eggs and hash browns

and even some Dairy Queens, but diners are where we go.

New Jersey happens to have the highest ratio of diners per capita in the nation, and we are proud of it. I think.

Rumor has it that are two or three not yet owned by Greeks. You can tell them by the lack of feta cheese prominently on the menu. They are close to Pennsylvania.

When I lived in Queens (a part of NYC for those who don't know) there were also an enormous number of diners. Absolutely the place to go after drinking yourself stupid. The only place to go, actually.

Diners range from the tiny ones, almost lunch counters, in some of the towns to huge monstrosities like 7 Brothers on Route 3. The Tick Tock down the road from 7 Brothers has made it to movies and guide books.

Or is it 5 Brothers? 10 Brothers? Who can keep track...

The Kenilworth Diner and the Union Plaza are closer to tablecloth restaurants and have an almost cult folowing hanging out there.

Felix #9 on Rte 22 (no one knows where the other 8 Felix's are) might yet make it into the Guiness book in a new category of building that has had the most cars crash into it. Around 15 at last count, I believe. It's at a very nasty intersection with a death-defying U-turn involved.

Most are open 24 hours, unlike the chain places, and most will give you a pretty good meal cheap. A few will solve any constipation or other irregularity problems you may have, although reported deaths are rare.

I shall be taking off in 20 or so minutes for a local diner where they have things like the leg of lamb lunch special-- $8.95 for unlimited salad bar, coffee, entree, vegetables, soup, and dessert. Then they have the same thing for dinner for $2 more. Late at night, no specials and they really hose you because you're drunk and don't know the difference and they want you out of there fast.

For lunch, it's almost as good a deal as the $5.95 buffets around here.

Love it!

Go to a Denny's.... get the sqirts!

in LA after a night of partying, it is Pink's...in OC we have a number of Japanese grills that are open for late night cuisine.

We used to have Belisle's open all night (big pink restaurant down the road from Disneyland) but they've been gone for several years now.

Taco Bravo serves what amounts to salt and fat on tortilla...and if you 420 management has no problem with it in their outdoor dining veranza (the whole thing is outdoor, actually)

The cheerful staff will always serve you and you can ask them anything you want about their prison tattoos and scars. Just don't use your cell phone in the vicinity as it might set off their ankle collars.

And parking is always available - just don't keep anything valuable in the back and if a fight breaks out they might just land on your car.

Ahhhh....I feel like going to Campbell today...