Even when I lived in Chicago for four years, I was right around the corner from a 24-hour place. I have been known to consume late-night nachos or even scrambled eggs after a big night, desperate to fend off any hint of a hangover. Even in this blessed age of online food ordering at all hours, I don't think I could live far from a 24-hour diner in Manhattan and still be a happy girl.
While it's not so common these days, the wait staff in diners once had their own vocab. My standing order is always "Adam and Eve on a whiskey raft and wreck 'em, plus a coffee high", but I'm too chicken to order it like that. The wait staff at my nearest 24-hour diner have trouble understanding my Australian accent at the best of times. How would they cope if I started throwing around the 1970s jargon too? Chaos.
When I came back from Australia at Christmas time, jetlag hit me really badly and I was awake at odd hours for days. It wasn't unusual for me to call into the 24-hour diner at 5am for an early breakfast. You can imagine the sorts of people who were in there at that hour, right? Shudder.
Some of the diners you'll go to in New York are licensed too, which can be handy if you're already a few beers into the evening. But for the most part, diners (24 hours or not) are just great local spots for a cheap and fast feed. Very few of them take credit cards though, so it's a good idea to have cash in your wallet - including some singles to leave on the table for the busboys who keep you topped up with coffee and water.
Having said all that, there are occasions when you want to branch out and try somewhere new, particularly if you have friends come to stay. In times like those, and if you're brave enough to face the tourist crush, you might like to visit a couple of New York's more famous diners including The Brooklyn Diner (with two locations, neither of which are actually in Brooklyn), and the Carnegie Deli, which prides itself on its "gargantuan" sandwiches (so wear stretchy pants).
Whether you go local or celebrated, during business hours or beyond, your neighbourhood diner will treat you right. And if you try out the 1970s jargon, let me know how it goes!
