Having a birthday in the
middle of the week isn’t much fun so we made a day of it today. Actually we
didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, just had a nice Saturday outing to town
to eat and do some shopping. Mandi hadn’t volunteered to work today and I try
to avoid working on Saturday due to the podcast commitments on Sunday, so there
was no rush whatsoever. Once I had dealt with the small errand of putting a
cheque in the bank it was time to eat. Mandi had been keen to try the new
American diner in town having enjoyed an American style breakfast at Warsaw Diner a while ago. She’s not really into my idea of breakfast so every now and
again we have to swerve the greasy spoons and go up in the world.
Long Island American Diner hasn’t
been open long so we had yet to give it a try. Rather than being an authentic
American diner, it has the feel of a theme park about it, as if the owner once
saw a diner in a film and decided to open one over here. An authentic diner
wouldn’t have to put posters of yellow taxis and the cast of Friends on the wall to emphasise the fact that we were
experiencing the USA eating experience. I’m sure that an English pub in New
York wouldn’t ram images of red phone boxes, the Queen, London buses and the
cast of Eastenders in your face to remind you of home. Actually, they would do
just that and have a Cockney sing-along CD on a loop behind the bar. I’m not
going to criticise the place itself; the place was clean and the staff were
friendly and helpful without taking it too far (ironically ignoring the
American way of doing customer service), they even helped us move tables to the
other end of the restaurant when it became apparent that the children at a
nearby table were in the care of parents who shouldn’t have brought them out if
they can’t control their behaviour and my patience would have soon vanished.
Mandi had the ‘Sweet American’
which looked like the ideal authentic breakfast of pancakes and bacon drizzled
with maple syrup. I opted for the ‘All American’, which confused me when it
arrived as it looked a lot like an English breakfast. Two fried eggs, bacon,
two sausages, black pudding, mushrooms, and the only two vaguely American
items, diced potatoes and spicy baked beans. Judging by our wait the food was
freshly cooked, (I don’t mind a wait for that reason) and as I said there was
no problem with the staff. It was too early for an alcoholic drink so we both
had fresh orange juice, (I certainly didn’t feel in the mood for the authentic
American beers on offer; John Smiths, Fosters etc). For the two of us the bill
came to just under fifteen pounds so it was great value just not what I
imagined an American breakfast to be. To end on a positive note, it was a
really nice English breakfast served in a charmingly amusing American style
diner straight out of Grease.
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