Like the American road trip, the old-school diner is making a comeback. Recently updated diners celebrate Americana through modern interiors while maintaining a respectful eye for the past. These modern renditions are carefully curated to retain the culture and essence of the old classic diner. Anyone from Long Island or New Jersey knows that diner culture is a holy, integral part of a developing youth's life. A solid place to grab fries with friends at any time of day or night, a spot that holds no judgment as to whether or not you're choosing to eat breakfast for dinner, or if dinner really just is your breakfast. Where life feels like the very sitcom version of itself in the best way. While New York's Upper West Side may be crawling with these fine, long-menu establishments, there’s been a noticeable absence in downtown. All that’s changing. The newly opened Soho Diner, tucked just next door to The Soho Grand, is a 24/7 modern rendition on an old classic that's anything but pretentious. The salmon pink booths and coin-operated Crosley Vinyl Jukebox and yellow formica counter all seem as though they've been there for decades - albeit well preserved decades. Of course, being in Soho, it does come with a few unexpected bougie elements, like your waiter asking, "Would you care for tap or bottled?". And when the menu includes Chia Pudding, Vegan Banana Pancakes, a Vegan Matcha Milkshake, Grilled King Salmon and Ahi Tuna, it’s obvious that this will be a diner of a different breed. Purists need not worry, however, there are plenty of classics like burgers, onion rings, disco fries, grilled cheeses, and non-vegan pancakes and milkshakes. On the West Coast, the recently opened Hilda and Jesse in San Francisco is an ode to the retro diners of the 1950s with a color palette of pastel pink, aqua, and red. In addition to playful striped walls, two-tone tufted banquettes, and hanging pendant lights, the design capitalizes on the natural light that pours in from the restaurant’s wraparound windows. “I wanted to bring to life an interpretation of the iconic diner that felt retro nouveau,” says designer Noz Nozawa. “One where you walk in and feel the nostalgia, but also the energy of the space as distinctly contemporary and quirky.” These new concepts serve up a sense of nostalgia for the laid back, old-school diners of the 1950s, along with a well-rounded and elevated diner experience that is reflected in the quality of the design.

You'll find milkshakes at just about every fast-food chain, but you'll probably need to visit an old-fashioned diner to find a malt, or what's sometimes called a malted shake. This soda fountain staple is a classic American treat, but how is it different from a milkshake, or is it just another name for the same thing? Here's what you need to know. Malts and milkshakes are not the same. To be fair, they have a lot in common, but one key ingredient sets them apart… malted milk powder, invented in 1897 by William Horlick who actually thought he was inventing health food! While the malted milkshake occupies a safe but basically humble position at soda fountains, probably nobody drinking a malt today suspects its colorful and downright heroic history. Disease! Starvation! Prohibitionism! The South Pole! The story goes like this… Malt is technically just a mixture of sugars produced from starch and usually fermented and turned into beer or whiskey. But, because malt sugars are easy to digest, 19th Century doctors often prescribed malt for children and invalids. In liquid form, however, it tended to ferment, which was problematic. For years every attempt to produce a stable dried form of malt failed until Horlick succeeded, making a malt powder he called Horlick’s Food. He quickly patented it and set up business in Racine, Wis. Doctors blessed his name and prescribed their patients Horlick’s Food, which made a tasty drink when mixed with milk. However, there was a glitch. In the late 19th Century, before modern refrigeration and pasteurization, milk was commonly infected with diseases, such as the dreaded tuberculosis. The 19th Century expression “the summer sickness” referred to diseases spread by milk. Unhappy about this, Horlick conceived the idea of making a form of Horlick’s Food that wouldn’t need to be mixed with milk. In 1882 he perfected the process of drying milk right along with the wheat and malt, making a product that only needed to be mixed with water. It was a convenience food as well as a health food! Travelers carried it to the tropics, the Himalayas and the Poles. Horlick’s Malted Milk Tablets were renowned as a cheap, reliable food during the Depression, when they were a standard item in school and work lunch pails. Even as late as the ‘50s, members of the Depression generation often made sure to keep malted milk tablets in the pantry for emergencies. In the late 19th Century, another factor would serendipitously contribute further to Horlick’s wealth and renown. The Temperance Movement was constantly trying to wean men away from saloons. One bright idea along these lines was the milk bar, also known as the ice cream parlor or soda fountain, where only ice cream and nonalcoholic beverages were served. Malted milk was a natural for the soda fountain. It was not only nonalcoholic but regarded as healthful. As tens of thousands of ice cream parlors sprang up across the country, Horlick became a very wealthy man. He became a public benefactor, donating a school, a hospital and a park to the city of Racine, as well as supporting wholesome youth movements like the Boy Scouts. Out of a sense of gratitude to the Scandinavians of Wisconsin, he also donated to many Norwegian causes. King Haakon of Norway made him the first American to receive the Order of St. Olaf as one of the principal backers of Roald Amundsen’s expedition to find the South Pole. Today, if you look at a map of Antarctica, about 125 miles from the South Pole--you will find the Horlick Mountains. The man to whom ice cream had been so good has been memorialized on the continent of ice!

First off, what is a soda fountain? The simplest answer is that a soda fountain was originally an apparatus that dispensed carbonated water (known as “soda water” in the United States), but over time the term expanded to also mean the area inside a business, often a counter, where a person could order a fountain drink. The original soda fountain machine was invented in Europe in the 1760s by a scientist named Joseph Priestly who dripped sulfuric acid onto chalk suspended above a vat of water. This, he discovered, infused the water with carbon dioxide. Five years later he published a paper describing his process, and the ground was laid for the modern soda industry. These first soda fountain machines, however, were not manufactured and marketed with much success in Europe. Then, in the early 1810s, an U.S. chemistry professor from Yale named Benjamin Silliman saw the potential of carbonated water and kick-started the business of soda machine manufacture and the sale of drinks across New York City and Baltimore, Maryland. While the bottled soda water was picking up steam as a product, it appeared that there was still something missing: flavor. Exactly who first started adding flavorings to soda water is unknown. What is known is that in the early 19th century some enterprising individual had the idea of combining wine and soda water, effectively creating the first spritzer and the first flavored soda at the same time. By the end of the Civil War, advertisements were appearing in big-city newspapers for flavored, non-alcoholic seltzers, and 20 years after that the cola nut and cocaine (yes cocaine) were first combined to create the now-iconic taste of Coke. In the early 20th century cocaine was replaced by caffeine, but the name “Coke” endured. At the end of the 19th-century, soft drink brands were springing up like wildfire, including Dr Pepper, Pepsi, Vernor's Ginger Ale, Hires Root Beer and more. Most of these now-staple brands were created by pharmacists at their in-store soda fountains. But while the ‘Soda Jerks’ who first served them went the way of the dinosaurs long ago, the brands took on a life of their own. The classic American soda fountain was defined as much by its atmosphere as by what it served. Light, cool, and airy places furnished with marble-topped counters and tables, shining mirrors, and sparkling glass and chrome serving dishes, soda fountains began springing up in the early nineteenth century and kept essentially the same formula until the 1950s, when drive-ins and car culture led to their decline.

Everyone has heard of French toast, that delicious treat of bread (maybe even stale bread) that’s been transformed into a smooth and tasty breakfast dish with a simple blend of eggs, milk, and sugar. The question is…Is French toast really French? Many people believe that French toast is a culinary invention of the French people, but it actually enjoys a much more international history that happens to include an unfortunate punctuation error. In the 17th century, English settlers brought the recipe to the U.S. from England, but it was an innkeeper in Albany, New York named Joseph French who actually created the dish in 1724. He called it “French’s Toast”. Because of his poor grammar and use of punctuation, he inadvertently left off the apostrophe…and the name “French Toast” stuck. Around the world French toast has many different names and people enjoy it in many different ways. The British call French toast eggy bread, gypsy bread or french-fried bread and sometimes serve it with ketchup. In Italy, French toast is made by taking two slices of bread and embedding mozzarella cheese between them, then dipping the sandwich in whipped egg and frying in typical French toast fashion. This version of French toast is then often topped with tomato sauce and cheese. In other countries French toast is known by names like: Spanish toast, German toast, nun's toast, torriga, poor knights of Windsor, Bombay toast and many others. In France the dish is known as "pain perdu" or "lost bread" because stale bread is used to make it. In the collective imagination it is believed that French toast came from a desire to not waste food, added to the religious connotation that throwing away bread was socially unacceptable. Each year on November 28, people across the United States observe National French Toast Day.

Americans are spending more on pets this year than ever (an estimated $109.6 billion) and it’s become increasingly more common for people to take their dog along while running errands or getting a bite to eat. Restaurants are realizing the buying power of dog owners who, like their furry friends, tend to be loyal, and if a restaurant accommodates their desire to dine with Fido, they’ll keep coming back. The most dog-friendly restaurants even provide drinking water and other amenities for visiting four-footers. According to American Pet Products Association (APPA) pet statistic s , nearly 70% of US households have at least one pet – the highest level reported on record. Millennials are reported to be opting more and more for owning dogs rather than having children, and many treat their dogs as if they are children, so being able to bring them out to eat is expected. According to recent statistics, forty five percent of American pet owners spend the same amount of money or more on their pets’ healthcare as they do on their own, and one in 10 American pet owners is putting off having kids or more children because of pet expenses. If you’re wondering how much Americans spend on pet food…probably too much, if this stat is anything to go by. Obesity is a prevalent problem among pets in the country, with an estimated 60% of all cats and 56% of all dogs being classified as obese or overweight. Diners, however, have been found to have vastly different opinions when it comes to dog friendly restaurants; some love the idea and jump at the opportunity to eat out with their four-legged friends, while others staunchly believe that dogs and dining out should never be mixed. On the plus side, wherever a dog goes, he does bring a unique joyful energy, but on the negative side, dogs can track dirt into the restaurant or leave other types of special surprises on the floor. As a result, a restaurant will need to have staff workers who are willing to get down and dirty. The final verdict seems to be that restaurant owners need to take all these variables into account before deciding if a dog-friendly establishment is what they really want. There’s no doubt that these types of restaurants require a lot of work and are not the safest investments, but for dog lovers they just might be worth it.

Most sandwich experts agree that its roots are in the gambling business. As the story goes, the club sandwich was invented in the late 19th century in a members-only gambling club in Saratoga Springs, New York, by line cook Danny Mears. Why is it called a “Club Sandwich,” you ask? Because it was invented in a club! It’s still up for debate, however, whether the Club House’s founder or chef was the first to create the towering stack of meat, lettuce, tomato, and bread. But there is still another fun fact: This small racetrack town in upstate NY must have been a cradle of invention in the 1800s because the club sandwich’s BFF, the potato chip, was also invented in Saratoga Springs in 1853! Luckily for everyone, the star sandwich left the gambling tables and was soon a hit around the country. From fancy restaurants to humble lunch spots to ex-King Edward VIII’s dining room table, the club sandwich manages to be satisfying, homey, and a little bit glamorous all at the same time. Whatever the origin, it's crucial that this delicious sandwich be served in triangles. Seriously, that's backed by science. According to a study performed by the Department of Culinary Science at The University of Vermont, the way we cut our sandwiches has a direct effect on how much we enjoy them. Researchers rounded up a culturally diverse group of subjects who were given four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches: one whole uncut sandwich, as well as three others, sliced vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. The sandwich-eating participants rated each sandwich experience on a scale of 1 to 20 in areas such as flavor, heartiness, presentation and overall enjoyment. In every single category, people vastly preferred all three cut sandwiches to the uncut sandwich. However, the standout winner against all its competitors was the diagonally-sliced sandwich! According to a "rectangle vs. triangle sandwich debate" on NPR's All Things Considered, the triangular shape was believed to allow for maximum exposure to flavors due to the increased surface area of its more flavorful ingredients. By this metric, the ideal sandwich silhouette would be a minimum of two diagonal cuts that form four smaller triangles, thus exposing even more surface area and eliminating any full bites of corner crust, which skimp on flavor and moisture. With all the facts in…You can’t beat the iconic club sandwich…traditionally served in triangles. STOP IN FOR LUNCH - FARMER CHICKEN CLUB/BLT 

Classics are deemed classics for a reason, and that is true for the eight original Santa Barbara eateries selected by Visit Santa Barbara, for having been an essential part of the fabric of the community for decades. What better stamp of approval is there than being long-loved by locals? Farmer Boy, set on the corner of an unassuming strip mall on upper State Street, was selected as one of the eight for having been a Santa Barbara staple since 1958. While the classic diner got a refresh several years ago, it remains true to its old school roots, from the counter seating to the comfy booths. A proper breakfast spot, it serves traditional egg dishes, omelets and pancakes, plus decadent fare like fried chicken and waffles, carnitas chilaquiles and eggs benedict. An edited all-day breakfast menu is also available at lunchtime, along with salads, burgers, sandwiches and fish tacos. When there’s room for something sweet, Farmer Boy serves up tasty throwback dessert staples like root beer floats, soda fountain shakes and banana splits. For the Santa Barbara local who has managed to miss one or all of these classic eateries, the following review may inspire a visit to the Farmer Boy: Posted on 10/28/2021 (Tripadvisor): “I have lived in Santa Barbara for 10 years now, and for some reason, I have never been to Farmer Boy. Boy have I been missing out!!! Went with a friend for a late breakfast and it was fantastic! It's a wonderful old-fashioned diner, complete with a fountain bar and bar stools! We sat outside, because of COVID, but that was nice, too. We had an omelet with sausage - which they make themselves, and it has fantastic flavor! It was mixed with sauteed vegetables and some cheddar cheese. Bit of sour cream on top and WOW! My friend had a scramble with lots of green veggies and said it was fabulous. She opted for the 'home fries'. They weren't just 'fries' - they were perfectly twice-cooked roasted potatoes! Believe me, next time I will get that! Our waitress told us that the eggs Benedict (either traditional or veg) was fantastic, and that's my next order. The lunch menu looked fantastic, too. I will definitely be back! So sorry I missed enjoying this place for the past 10 years, but I will make up for lost time now!

Ever taken a bite of a delicious and odd combination and wondered, “Hey. This is good. Where did this idea come from; Well, the answer to that question is here. For Chicken and Waffles, at least. Read on if you’ve ever had a burning desire to find out the origins of this delicious, but whacky dish. Breaking it down into its two basic elements: fried chicken and waffles, fried chicken showed up in its earliest form as fricassee, fried chicken pieces braised in sauce, popular in the Mediterranean basin during the Middle Ages. By the 1300s, it began appearing in France and colonial America, where African slaves were doing most of the cooking in Southern kitchens. Lady Martha Washington was said to have had two recipes for fricassee in her recipe collection. With the advent of the automobile, roadside diners and restaurants began appearing in droves, and fried chicken was on most menus. In the 1940s, Harlan Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders, developed his signature fried chicken recipe and, by 1952, his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise helped to make fried chicken a popular treat in households across the country. Waffles also appeared during medieval times when bakeries began making communion wafers to compete with monasteries. The waffle was created using the same method that was used to make the communion wafers and quickly became a popular street food. The Pilgrims are responsible for bringing waffles to America in 1620, after discovering them during their brief stop in Holland. Thomas Jefferson reportedly started a mini American waffle craze during the 1790s when he returned from France with a goose- handled waffle iron. Years later, when Americans were introduced to the fluffy Belgian waffle at the 1964 Worlds Fair, waffles quickly became an official American favorite. The earliest American chicken and waffle combination was said to appear in Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1600s. A different, decidedly soul food-inspired approach to the pairing, however, worked its way into popular culture with the opening of Wells Supper Club in Harlem, New York in 1938. The restaurant was known simply as ‘Wells’ to regulars. The super club became a late night hotspot for jazz musicians, who would stop by late at night after their various gigs. The musicians, arriving too late for dinner but too early for breakfast, enjoyed the appetizing compromise of fried chicken and waffles. Before long, Wells was frequented by the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole, who actually held his wedding reception there. The combination became increasingly popular, spreading to Los Angeles when Harlem native Herb Hudson opened a restaurant dedicated to the pairing. The restaurant, Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, is a staple for music industry professionals and performers in the LA area. If you have ever tried this unlikely pairing, you understand what it is about chicken and waffles that has caused such a stir over the years. Its a delectable union of sweet and salty, soft and crunchy, maple and chicken. And while it might sound strange to the uninitiated, loyal fans are quick to say...“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!”  Chicken and waffles are a dynamic culinary duo.

According to a recent survey by the National Research Group, roughly 90% of Americans say the COVID-19 pandemic provided “a good time to reflect on what’s important to them.” Almost everyone seems to have a list of things they once took for granted but now miss dearly...or things they have newly discovered and fallen in love with as a result of the pandemic. Also included are the people, places and things that folks have re-discovered and developed a renewed appreciation for; things they swear they won’t take for granted again when life returns to normal-ish. The Food Business News suggests that ‘breakfast time’ may have become one of those re-discovered and newly appreciated gems. Breakfast is no longer a rushed experience for many Americans forced to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic. They began making pancakes, waffles and pork dishes while enjoying family time. In a June webinar organized by the Center for Food Integrity in Gladstone, Mo., Locke Hilderbrand, chief insights officer for Whysdom, a behavior science company that combines data with human analysis and critical thinking, reported that “People have slowed down during the week and have begun making what normally would be a weekend breakfast or a holiday breakfast. So there is this idea of almost reclaiming the morning because people are realizing they don’t have that massive rush to get out the door anymore, and it’s no longer necessarily the idea that breakfast is almost a commodity that I grab or I miss.” According to The NPD Group, a market research and consumer insights company, the indexes for pancakes, waffles, French toast, crepes and pork/pork dishes eaten at breakfast all were over 150 in April 2020 when compared to April 2019. Likewise, the indexes for spices, seasonings, marinades and rubs at breakfast also were over 150 in April. “You don’t put those on a bar or cereal,” said Susan Schwallie, executive director of food and beverage consumption for The NPD Group.  She reported that sales of breakfast appliances such as waffle irons and coffee pods are also doing well. “This signals that we may not be willing, or it may be a struggle, to give back some of this time we’ve given to ourselves in the morning,” Ms. Schwallie said.