The Pompton Queen

One of the best—and most unique—things about New Jersey is the diner. If you’ve never been to NJ, you may think you know what a diner is, but trust me: you probably don’t. The only place outside NJ that truly deserves the “diner” moniker is in Lafayette, on the corner of SR52 and SR26. It was formerly known as Nirvana, then reopened under new ownership as The Four Seasons. (The guy that owned Nirvana did reopen in a new location, a few months ago, using the name “Nirvanas”; unfortunately, Nirvanas closed down last month, so that’s the end of that.) ☹

Anyway, the true diners are quite ubiquitous in New Jersey. The best have been around for the better part of a century, and most have been open 24/7 for decades—long before that became so popular. While a few national chains (e.g. Denny’s, IHOP) have tried to capture the feel, it’s just not there. There’s a certain kind of food, a certain kind of ambience; if you don’t have both, it’s just not a diner. In short, identifying a true diner is like the famous quote about pornography: you can’t quite describe it, but you know it when you see it.

So now that that background’s out of the way, tomorrow is Grandma’s 60th birthday, so Pop orchestrated a phenomenal party for her at a local restaurant called the Manor. It’s a great place—all buffet style—but we’re talking prime rib, lobster, all high-end stuff. It’s like $50 a head, so goodness knows they don’t go there very often, much less invite Grandma’s entire family. (There were like twenty of us there, plus Pop paid to fly us out for it. You do the math.)

Our flight, unfortunately, was delayed by three hours, which actually turned out to be a bit of a good thing: Leah got sick and was able to puke all over the airport floor instead of on the plane, thank goodness. But by the time we landed—around 10:30 at night—she was feeling much better and we were all hungry. So where do we go? (One guess. You have been paying attention, haven’t you?) Yes, that’s right: the diner. Specifically, Pequannock’s long-time staple of a diner, the Pompton Queen. We called Jaci and Justin from Pop’s cell, had them meet us there—never mind that it was after midnight; at the diner, that’s standard fare. There were probably another 20-30 people there, just chilling out, having a midnight meal, watching some TV, maybe splitting a dozen silver-dollar pancakes (which is what Leah and David did, although I think they only ate one each; the rest are still left over, in the fridge). In short, it was just like I remembered it, and after sleeping on the plane, the kids were more than up for it, despite the late hour.

Oh, and we took a bunch of pics!