Merrimack Diner Closes Its Doors

This is a bummer. The diner where presidential candidates always stopped in Manchester, NH has closed. Famous for its gritty down-to-earth setting where White House hopefuls could chat one-on-one with the locals, the diner is no longer serving up eggs and bacon with a side of politics.

It's a shame, because I had a chance to eat there in March, but didn't head in.

The Night of the Living Diner

I'd say that pretty much anyone who is familiar with popular culture as seen the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. You may not know it by name, but the glassed-in corner diner seems to be universally recognized the classic nighttime diner scene.

While its location is never indicated in the painting, I'm always reminded of Chicago (even though Hopper was inspired by a long since demolished diner in Greenwich Village in New York). I find myself reminded of movies that contain similar diner-inspired scenes - movies that were set in Chicago - and they always bring me back to Hopper's painting, which is elegant in its straight lines and starkly contrasting light & dark colors. Movies like The Sting or Dick Tracy.

It's funny - Hopper's work speaks of the loneliness and solitude that city life brings to the millions of denizens that happen to live and work near each other. Late at night, across the counter from each other, even though they're sharing a meal, these people are alone. And to me, this is the absolute antithesis of my own diner experiences. I love to go with people, to share a meal, to swap stories, and to just live. Even if I happen to be alone on a stool at the counter, it's fun chatting with the cook or the waitress, to get a sense as to what makes them tick and what they see on an average day.

A friend recently sent me a Chicago Tribune article called Diners with a side of noir, in which the author seeks to recreate the perfect Hopperesque scene late at night in Chicago diners. There's a video that accompanies the article, so it's worth the click. It also mentions a Hopper retrospective that's going on at the Art Institute of Chicago, where Nighthawks permanently resides.

If you can't get there, maybe you can just enjoy the blue plate special at your favorite diner and this little visual homage:

Super Bowl Rivalry Means Food Fights Galore

As you may know, the New England Patriots are heading to Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix against the New York Giants. While we get our fill with the boys of summer, t's not often that we get to see the Boston - New York rivalry played out in the winter months.

And as you know, with every Super Bowl comes the Super Bowl party. Some folks go all-out, partying and eating all day long. Others are happy to just plunk down in an armchair for the game, with some munchies by their side. Whatever your style, there's a stark difference between Boston and New York cuisine.

In fact, today's Boston Globe had a pair of articles that waged a food fight between the rival cities. On the Boston side, we've got Sheryl Julian, who blogs at Dishing, claiming Our roast beef and claims rule. And on the Gotham site, it's Ed Levine of Serious Eats and Ed Levine Eats (how original!) who boldly states: You can't beat our pizza.

Julian waxes poetic about the seashore and the farmland of New England, and how we hearty souls have made ample use of both in our cuisine. She says the lobsters and oysters found off our shores are second to none, and then she gets going on our ice cream. Worth a nod here are her words about a favorite of mine:

Fried clams deserve a moment of glory. These are uniquely ours - round clam bellies that are crisp and golden, sprinkled with salt, heaped in a box, and consumed leaning against the car in a hot, crummy parking lot filled with gas fumes. Drive to Woodman's in Essex or the Clam Box in Ipswich and torture yourself with the lines; or go to Essex Seafood or J.T. Farnham's, both in Essex; or discover your own dive.

Mmm-mmm! Makes me want to clam on over and pay Harry's a visit.

Let's head south for the other view.

Levine starts his column unabashed and in your face, just like a New Yorker: "I am in love with New York food." Nothing wrong with that. He talks about why New York is home to some of the greatest food, with a set of very convincing facts: immigrants, chefs and artisans descended upon the city in droves and brought a variety of recipes, customs and flavors of their own.

Undoubtedly, New York is king of pizza, having started with Lombardi's Pizza over 100 years ago. The farther away you move from New York, the more it seems the population craves New York-style pizza. And Levine goes on to say that we have the Eastern European immigrants to thank for "the holy trinity of pastrami, bagels and smoked fish." He finishes by talking about the mind-boggling and mouth watering array of sandwiches that can be found on nearly every corner.

Levine ends with a quote that's worthy of both cities:

[The] foodscape is much like the residents of this town and the city itself: full of heart, soul, character, passion, and generosity of spirit. And that will be true no matter who wins the Super Bowl.

Hear, hear. Now let's get out there and eat!

The Boulevard Diner

Sometimes you just need friends to kick your butt to make something happen. That's exactly how I found myself in the Boulevard Diner in Worcester, MA today. As you know, it's been a while since I've posted anything here (but the dining experiences have continued unabated), so this was the inspiration I needed.

At the prompting of Joe Cascio, aka joec0914 on Twitter, we blocked out today for a true diner experience. I had gotten to know Joe through PodCamp Boston last year - and there's another diner post waiting to be made with respect to that weekend - and have been pleasantly surprised to discover mutual interests, including golf. Joe discovered this blog and it reminded him of some diner experiences of his own during his college days in Worcester. You can read his reminiscences and his take on our meal on his blog. And here's the video of our visit:

But one of the interesting things - at least to me - was an opportunity to visit a diner in the city that can be considered one of the most important with respect to diner history. Forgive me the brief history lesson here. Diners were first manufactured as replicas of railroad dining cars, originating in Providence, RI in the late 1800s. The term "Worcester diner car" comes from the Worcester Lunch Car Company, a manufacturing company that actually made the diner cars. The Boulevard is actually a Worcester (#730) from 1937 and it still has its original interior, including wood, tile, and stained glass windows. Joe's Flickr set actually does a great job of capturing this.

On the menu for us today:

• Joe revisited his college experiences with an Italian sausage sandwich with a side of chocolate milk. To say the bread was fresh was an understatement.
  
• C.C. went with the old warhorse, the one dish that is the universally-accepted diner fare: meatloaf, mashed potatoes & gravy. Veggies included carrots & green beans.
• I decided to sample their steak & cheese - probably because it's the last thing I remember posting about here, lol.

Without a doubt, this was a true diner experience. If you're ever in Worcester, make the Boulevard one of your stops.

The Boulevard Diner
155 Shrewsbury St
Worcester, MA 01604
(508) 791-4535
Get directions

The Great Cheese Steak Debate

Oh, how I wish I could have been in Philadelphia last weekend! Philadelphia, home of the cheese steak. Mmmmm....chees esteak....

C.C. was there and he participated in the Great Cheese Steak Debate along with other Boston-area new media types such as Christopher Penn and Steve Garfield. The occasion was Podcamp Philly, which was organized in part by Whitney Hoffman.

The night-time outing takes our intrepid culinary critics into the city as they visit dueling shops Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's Steaks. Whether or not they've got good food, they're already contenders by showering us with neony goodness.

I know Pat's by reputation and by legend (they invented the steak sandwich), but Geno's looked like it could hold its own. Who will win?

Video courtesy of The Best Damn Tech Show, Period and posted on a really cool video sharing & commenting site, Viddler.

Harry's Restaurant & Dairy Bar

When a restaurant's 1950s drive-in style marquee states "CLAM ON OVER AND PAY US A VISIT," you just can't deny them. I've often driven past Harry's Restaurant & Dairy Bar in Westborough, MA at high speeds (well, as high as they'll let you go on Route 9), but I had never taken the time to go there. It must have been the dancing clam on their website that sealed the deal for me.

On June 6 (my first week working with my fellow blogger), C.C. and I headed to Westborough to check out some office space. But before we went to speak with the sales agent, we stopped for some well-needed nourishment that would fuel us through the afternoon.

When you drive up to the restaurant, it doesn't seem like much. A nondescript parking lot gives way to a fairly mundane storefront. It's not really that inspiring, but let's face it, when you've been around since 1946 like Harry's, you're not as concerned wit aesthetics. It's clearly all about the food.

The same could be said for their web site. Again, nothing fancy - but then again, you don't need fancy. Just tell me how to get there and I'll do the rest. After recently checking back, I noted they removed the PDF of their menu. No matter, I've reproduced it here. I'd imagine they're changing the prices & such (the menu is (c) 2001), so don't think of it as the gospel truth.

So, when you get inside, it's probably no more than 10 booths, and another 10 or so brushed metal & vinyl swivel stools at the counter. You can see the frappe maker machines behind the counter, along with neon signs, handwritten specials, wood paneling and formica as far as the eye can see. But the thing that really stood out: a 42-inch flat-panel TV mounted on the wall. Get your food from the 50's and your news from the present.

But the whole reason we were there was the food. When I arrived, C.C. was already nose-deep in the large metal cup that housed his chocolate frappe. I just ordered a Coke and then we dove into the menu full bore. With lots of great burgers and club sandwiches to choose from, this was going to be a hard decision. Not to mention the all-day breakfast options. I ended up going with a fried clam roll and fries, C.C. got the fried scallop platter and onion rings. We were in heaven. I finished it off with a piece of aged lemon meringue pie (the meringue was gummy, rather than light & fluffy) and a cup of coffee.

Our assessment? A top-notch place that does well with fresh food. Unless it's clearly baked that day, I'd stay away from the desserts in the display case. But otherwise, well worth jamming on the brakes and causing a 7-car pileup.

Just What the World Needs

I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of good food. It doesn't have to be gourmet, it just has to be good. When C.C. and I began working together, we discovered a mutual love of "real food" and we decided to have a regular lunch when we could catch up, chew the fat and down some of our favorites.

A little while into it, I thought it might be a good idea to chronicle our adventures. Not that we're looking to become the next food critic show, but just something that allows us to share our passion about greasy spoons, diners, roadside stands, etc. Anything but fast food!