Connecticut Diners and Andy

When Andy and I lived in NYC, we would take many trips back to Connecticut. Andy had a mailbox there, by his parents house, and he would go to collect the mail and see his family.

The best trips were the ones where we went to see Andy's Grammy, who was always ready for adventure. She loved to go to fantastic restaurants nearby and wasn't at all put off by Andy's ability to eat dinner at 10:30pm. She would happily wait for us to arrive, always late and we would have a reservation somewhere 45 minutes away. She loved to try new things, as we had been accustomed to and she would always order an appetizer. When the appetizer arrived, it never failed, she would say, "I could eat this as my meal, there is enough here for dinner!" or something like that. But she would keep up and continue eating with us throughout the meal. We always had a doggie bag for Grammy to take home and that would be her lunch the next day.

Connecticut is a beautiful state and even though I lived there through high school, I did not get a chance to explore its character until this period in my life. I lived in the Northernmost part of the state and knew Massachusetts better than Connecticut. It wasn't until the mid-90's when I took a drive down the Merritt Parkway and appreciated its unique architecture, signing and history. It was the first time I had been to Westport and discovered what Martha Stewart had been talking about all of these years- its beautiful shops, farm stands and many buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

I miss the Northeast sometimes, but I am still very grateful to be West of the Mississippi in the glorious Southwest. There are a few things I miss that we are unable to get here, though. One of those things is the old-fashioned diner. The diner that was open for 24 hours and has about 500 menu items, not including the dessert case you see when you walk into the lobby. The waitresses that have worked there since they were kids, but now they have great grandchildren. The place you could go (besides Denny's) at 7pm and if you wanted breakfast, they wouldn't say, "We stopped serving breakfast at 11am."

One of the many things I looked forward to on those trips aside from the dinners with Grammy, was our trips to the diners. We ate at lots of CT diners, mostly because by the time we made our way to CT, they were the only places still open. We ate at the Laurel Diner in Southbury, the Sherwood Diner in Westport and so many more. I was constantly fascinated that I could order a Greek Salad, Andy could place his order for an omelet and we could get a side of fries in approximately 10 minutes. Then we could get dessert- coconut cream pie, cheesecake or chocolate cake. Sometimes you had to skip dessert because there were too many choices and you couldn't decide. Reading the diner menu can take longer than reading the Sunday paper.

What we realized frequenting the diners is that many of the country's most talented cooks are hiding out in them. They can cook almost anything with the snap of a finger. Talent is having all of the fresh ingredients on hand, prepped and ready to go out to the table. We realized that the diner was something we took for granted when we were growing up and the diner is not something you can find anywhere in the country. A true, honest diner is hard to come by outside of the Northeast.

Although I have traveled quite a bit and have eaten some great meals at some top restaurants, the diners were among my favorites.