From the late ’40s to the mid-80s, locals and tourists to San Francisco and Oakland, California, enjoyed local fare from a classic diner. The first Doggie Diner opened in Oakland (on San Pablo Ave) during WWII. Founder Al Ross grew the small chain to 30 diners, the bulk of them in San Francisco. In the

I love the traditional diner. I also grew up old school—even in the ’80s I worked at a small-town “real” diner as a cook. You know, where the waitresses jot down orders on tickets, which then get clipped to a rail or spindle? And it was all in shorthand. As a cook, you had to

It’s not like coffee drinkers (which counts for about 85% of Americans) need a special day to celebrate. But we sure wouldn’t mind getting a free cup of joe while we reminisce about the past. September 29th is National Coffee Day, and that means lots of coffee shops are giving us freebies, including Dunkin’ Donuts,

“EAT” signs were used in diners in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. Signs like these were also sprinkled along the length of Route 66 and all over the rest of the country in the heyday of the American diner. The popularity of diners and lunch counters peaked in the post-WWII era of the 1950s and

From Horse-Drawn Wagon to the Great American Diner A “diner” is typically defined as a prefabricated building or modular structure, designed as a location from which to prepare and serve food. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a diner as “a restaurant usually resembling a dining car in shape”. The name derived from railroad dining cars, since