Disco Diner

A seldom-scene friend was in a celebratory mood today and called me at the last minute.

Today was the two-year anniversary of when he gave up smoking and discovered he had cancer.

After an appointment this morning confirming that he's now cancer-free, he wanted to have lunch and celebrate himself.

Usually he lets me choose our destination, but today he announced that we were going to Third Street Diner, a place I haven't been since before it reopened a few years back.

It turned out that we were going for memory's sake.

Back in his radio days in the 90s, he said, he'd spent a lot of time at Third Street, "Upstairs, snorting lines, drinking coffee and eating pancakes."

Let's just say he led a far more colorful life than I could ever imagine, so I just wait for the tales.

The decor was (how do I say this?) interesting.

The curvy black fake fur banquettes with matching faux fur chairs looked like they came from the disco era.

In my cantaloupe-colored dress, I created quite the Halloween effect against all that black.

But other than that and the new candy machine up front, it was all pretty much the same.

They still had the rotating dessert case, the dim bar, the plastic menus.

I'm not even sure that the menu items have changed.

But it's pure diner food, which is my friend's favorite.

He got his usual hamburger (never with cheese!) with lettuce, tomato, mayo and fries.

They were the old-fashioned crinkle cut fries which he loves to douse in mayo.

I've known this guy for over 15 years and I've seen him eat this exact lunch more times than I could count.

I'll tell you what, though, he seems to take pleasure in it every single time.

I played it safe with a grilled cheese with bacon and onion rings on the side.

The onion rings were not freshly made for me, but the sandwich was perfectly satisfying.

I mean, if a diner can't make a decent grilled cheese, all the fuzzy banquettes in the world aren't going to make a bit of difference.

I can't speak to how good the pancakes were back in the day, but from the sound of the stories, I don't think it mattered much.