By Edward Master
My wife and I at one time became more than just sporadic viewers of the Food Channel's "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" as hosted by Guy Fieri, a food personality and restaurant owner. Originally, I pictured Fieri as a New Yorker or Californian, not for any particular reason other than his up-tempo personality. I was way off base as Fieri is a Columbus, OH, native.
We became semi-fans on the chance that Fieri's show featured a Philadelphia haunt with which we were all too familiar. Fieri himself featured bottle-blonde hair and drove a red Camaro to the local hot spot on the show. One such episode featured a treatise on the long-standing debate concerning which of Philly's cheesesteaks was the favorite. Personally, I never favored one from Pat's or any other South Philly fare. I usually stuck with one from Mike's in Glassboro, NJ. However, over a span of years, and sandwiches, my personal fave may have been from Mark's sandwich shop in Kutztown, PA, where I first taught school and learned of the tasty treat.
That was the first Philly-style cheesesteak I ever had, but I admit I had provolone cheese for the topper, not the often used cheese whiz of Philly. I intro-ed the delicacy to my mother and, when I would make the return trip home, I took along a cheesesteak for Mom.
I've already touched on what I consider a diner in earlier columns, a-k-a The Modern Diner on Main St. in Clarion. This location is now home to a Dunkin' Donuts and before that it was a pharmacy. The M-D had its own cast of characters, inside as employees and outside from the locals.
I believe my first trip to the M-D was in high school with a group of high school friends on a trip/business related to a high school function. Later in life, my visits to the M-D were college-related, often on Saturday nights following party time. This was almost a rite of passage. I believe the server/waitress who worked most Saturday nights was named 'Mary.' In her own way, Mary was an icon of the era of the Modern Diner.
One local character, in his own righteous manner, was a fellow named Bill Kahle (I think). I learned a little more about Mr. Kahle through a fraternity brother who knew him or knew of him. In a way, this guy was almost an 'urban legend.' He was a college student, but not a college athlete, yet an athlete in his own way. He was rumored to carry a punching bag with him. Why? I never heard why nor did I ever really ask. I once saw a photo (maybe a polaroid) of Kahle's back. His back looked as wide as a manta ray's span in the ocean. There were rumors about him moving volkswagons by hand, lifting the car's bumpers. Oh, one of the popular menu choices on a Saturday night was pancakes. Maybe to act as an absorbant?
My diner experience in western PA is limited. We had the small restaurants, like the Carriage Inn (once Underwood) in Knox, the Corner restaurant first in Sligo but now in Rimersburg, and the Plaza in Emlenton (a truck stop). The diners appeared eastward and especially into Jersey. The Country Kitchen, off I-80 near Clearfield, wasn't really a diner, but it was diner-ish. A true diner can be found near Pleasant Gap on route 322, off I-80, near State College called Sunset West. The Sunset was a frequent refueling stop on the trip tween Jersey and Turkey City.
I've often heard/read that New Jersey was referred to as a 'diner capital.' We had three diners in Glassboro: PB's', the Olympic, and Angelo's. PB's actually relocated across the street to a much larger lot to become a much larger facility, the Olympic was Greek owned and featured Greek food (fantastic grape leaf wraps), Angelo's was locally owned and operated; Angelo's daughter and son-in-law picked up its operation when Angelo passed. This eatery was legend locally; you waited outside in the weather on weekends for a table/booth/stool. You often found a diner at a traffic circle throughout the state; the 'roundabouts' in Pennsy are known as traffic circles in Jersey.
Speaking of Super Bowls
I'm past the giddiness of being a 'Swifty.' I'm just surprised there's not more backlash coming from the C&W genre as Swiftly was originally all about 'country' moosic. I guess the Swifties had a high time at the recent grammies.
And you know what? No matter whom the Steelers hired for the OC job, the Burg media wouldn't have like the choice. Batter up! Baseball spring is just around the corner.