American Diner

This is (or was) the ideal diner book; a perfect balance of history, photos, and diner stories. Some books are all photos, some are all stories of individual diners and their owners. Gutman gives a clear, interesting account of the gestation and development of this peculiarly American form of restaurant (like most good things, it came from the Northeast), traces the fortunes of the original diner manufacturing companies, details the tangled stories of newer companies that branched off, tells how the diner changed with the times, and finally leads us to the recent era of retro-diners. But he doesn't stint on photos, both exterior and interior, of gleaming old classic diners, and there are sidebars telling about individual diners. If you want to be able to tell a Fodero from a Worcester Lunch Car, or a Paramount from a Mountain Veiw, this is your book. If you just want to gawk at diner pictures, this is also your book. The diner index at the back is great fun, too, even though it was bound to be out of date before the book hit the stores in 1993. (Even more fun to find diners that he missed; there are at least two such in Massachusetts.) Too bad this is now out of print, but apparently a new edition is slated to be published later this year.

A case study of the factory-built roadside diner complete with a detailed history and photos of the classic American Diner. If you just enjoy Roadside Americana or a frustrated cook, this is the bible of Diners! I have repeatedly reread and referenced this dog-eared copy!