Diners #31-35

I added four more diners to the list.  Got to eat three diner meals, with the highlight being the big portions and affordable prices at the City Star Diner in Manheim, PA.  This is a DeRaffele Environmental diner.  It is a very boxy diner, which seems to be what DeRaffele went after later in the environmental phase.  Diners of Pennsylvania by Stackpole books says this is a 1990 DeRaffele.  The inside reminded me of the Monk episode where the San Francisco sanitary workers are on strike, and he goes into the white room and smiles.  The dining room has a lot of white.   The food was quite affordable, as I said earlier.  Got a full meal for $9 and had to take more than half of the main course home with me.

Kyle Weaver works at Stackpole, and took on the job of re-editing the second version of Diners of Pennsylvania.  I went on two trips in northeast Pennsylvania to check in with diner owners.  Kay's was a stop for dinner with Kyle.  While the O'Mahony diner does not sport a counter, at least it was saved.  The current owner found the diner in a scrapyard and saved it.  The diner acts as additional seating for his hugely popular Italian restaurant.  Also, the baked goods are insanely good.  Like I have told people. The Scranton area really has some good food, and if you go hungry in this region, you're either sick, or not trying.

  I had been by Al's diner once, quite a few moons ago, but I finally got to eat at this O'Mahony Diner now named Nick & Ivy's Country Diner in October of 2011.  Al Sloan brought his and three other diners up to Alpena, Michigan and decided to get this one open for the residents to enjoy.  The diner was quiet when I stopped in, on a Thursday.  The interior is pretty much original and sports an L shape customer area with the kitchen in behind the counter area.  The women's room door was open and showed that the diner had pink tiles on the floor in the women's room.

Moving farther west, the Band Box Diner was built by Butler Mfg just before World War 2.  Over a dozen of these little diners were placed all over Minneapols - St. Paul, with this one in the Dinkytown section of Minneapolis the final Band Box.  The interior has been enlarged, which may be why this diner was able to survive.  Today, the diner is an iconic part of the neighborhood, whereas one time, it was rumor to have been a hang out for mobsters.  When I ate here with Gordon Tindall, I asked the owner if the fries were real and he said they were and that the stools, and the water were also real.

We will end in the southwest in Arlington, Texas, at the only diner I have eaten at in Texas so far.  I ate here with my cousin Wendi S. just before heading out towards Colorado.  This Starlite diner started out as a Denny's, but was discontinued and sold to an independent owner.  My cousin did not know about this place and said the food was good and she hopes to go back.  The interior has forest green trim, which is rare for Starlites as the vast majority have red trim.  I could not find a tag for this diner.

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