I read this and thought it was quite interesting. Oddly enough, I was born in NY (lived there till I was almost 6) and have visited about a 1/2 dozen times since, but honestly donāt think Iāve ever been to a diner there!
If I ever do have the chance to, Iāll likely choose one that has ācooksā instead of āchefsā, though, 
Thereās a farm-to-table place in my (US) hometown that has neither chefs nor cooks ā just ācomposersā and āconductors.ā
That alone put me off forever. Never mind the food wasnāt living up to their lofty descriptions, and we had a comically bad experience on the occasion of our first meal. The second visit was mediocre, and included raw eggplant in my salad.
Yea, no.
There aināt a whole heck of a lot I pride myself on, but one of those things is that I am not and have never been a trendy person. When my sister says things like āCaliā for California, I inevitably say, āAh, the Colombian city.ā
I donāt know that itās a source of pride for me. I just find most trends boring. Always have.
Itās a little like the poor folks in this article. Anything to show oneās pretend āindividuality.ā 
I ate at S&P Lunch a few months ago because I was staying at a hotel around the corner. I had no idea it had been ārebornā as an IG influencer hangout although I got clued in as I walked up to it and saw a giant line outside. I skipped the line, walked in, and took the one empty seat at the counter. I had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with corned beef and a chocolate egg cream. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth waiting more than 10 minutes for? No.
There is but a handful of places where I would wait to get in. A diner is unlikely to be one of them.
I had already ālikedā that one and wholeheartedly agree with it. My sister and a former boss brag about how theyāve never been to Starbucks. Personally, although Iām not a fan of their coffee and have only ordered a drip or āregularā coffee there, I think they revolutionized if not actually created a coffee shop culture (we had pretty much long ago lost the ā50s-ā60s bohemian coffee house culture.)
I feel that if Starbucks hadnāt come about by far, the vast majority of coffee shops that exist in North America today would simply not exist.
(end of rant).
I know cooks like to be called chefs. But really? Every diner has chefs? Shaking up a short order menu or focusing on quality is some āelevationā?
That pickle looks like it had a rough day.
Thatās how pickles are supposed to look!
All beat up n bruised? If you say so.
Itās not beat up and bruised. Itās wrinkly from being brined for the correct amount of time.
I usually visit one or 2 diners/ coffee shops/ luncheonettes when I visit NYC, the type with the short order cooks.
Usually for breakfast and a coffee, or a tuna melt.
I donāt think Starbucks took away too much of their old client base (which is largely shrinking due to age).
What has changed is how many people will pay $8 for a warmed up, pre-made breakfast sandwich or a $7 pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks, rather than paying $15 for a made-to- order diner omelette with toast, and an 8 ounce coffee in a paper cup at a neighbourhood diner.
The people dropping money at Starbucks were never serious diner aficionados.
Grilloās pickles are kronchy, tart, dilly, and generally unbruised. Last time I had a pickle that looked like the one in your picture, it was floppy & too soft for me 
But looks can certainly be deceiving.
Read this, and fondly remembered the diners in northern NJ when I was growing up (even better when I learned to drive and would be out at night with friends!)
Then I read the comments.
One pretentious prat said about Old Johnās Luncheonette "I had the cod with sauteed broccolini and rice, and my date had the salmon with rice and sauteed asparagus. They served something called dijohnase (sp?) on the side of the salmonānothing special. Both entrees were good, but they need to expand more of such non-standard diner entrees. If we go again, we will probably order the cod and salmon again, given that there isnāt anything else on the menu that appears exciting. "
No, they donāt need to expand the non-traditional diner menu. Their dinner menu looks fineā¦braised short ribs, shrimp scampi, 16 oz pork chop, fried chicken, steak frites, steak au poivre. What they got were probably the least interesting things on the dinner menu!
I can think of one local diner I would have waited to get into - but only because it was open 24/7. Post-pandemic, they close at 11 and donāt open again until 6 or 7. A treasured era is gone.
