Soon prefabricated structures known as diners - many made in New Jersey - moved into vacant lots, streamlining the cheap eating experience.Ĭafeterias appealed to New Yorkers looking for cleanliness, and those looking for an inexpensive, solitary meal turned to one unusual restaurant - the automat. And thus was born the luncheonette, mini-lunch spaces in drug stores and candy shops. Cellar establishments like Buttercake Dicks served rudimentary sustenance, and men often ate food provided by bars.īut once women entered the public sphere - as workers and shoppers - eating houses had to evolve to accommodate them.
There were no New York restaurants per se before Delmonico’s in 1827, although workers on-the-go frequented oyster saloons and bought from street vendors and markets. In this episode, the Bowery Boys trace the history of the New York diner experience, a history of having lunch in an ever-changing metropolis.
They range in all shapes and sizes - from the epic, stand-alone Empire Diner to tiny luncheonettes and lunch counters, serving up fried eggs and corned beef.
The classic diner is as American as the apple pie it serves, but the New York diner is a special experience all its own, an essential facet of everyday life in the big city. PODCAST The evolution of affordable dining - from oyster houses to lunch counters.
