Diners. 


I’m pretty sure we all like diners here, even though we’re not allowed to smoke in them anymore. I mean, we’re from New Jersey, the diner is part of our state identity! There are online travel guides focused around visiting every one of its five hundred some-odd diners. I recall my first days of rebellion as I ignited a cigarette in the Scotchwood Diner and nobody batted an eye. Everyone belongs in a diner. 

That’s why it tickles me pink that this artist chose the Summit Diner as the focus of her piece. I’ve probably been to this diner. And that’s the magic of a New Jersey diner. A meal you might have had in Deal might as well have been in Highland Park, because there’s a certain culture that’s present in the diner you won’t find at other establishments. 

New Jersey has a wide variety of people, but they’ve all had a meal at a diner. And when we patronize these establishments, we help exude a certain New Jersey culture that isn’t present in other states where they look at you weird when you say light and sweet (I order mine black!) or they don’t have taylor ham on the menu. New Jersey just wouldn’t be New Jersey without its diners.