This place is clearly from another time and that's kinda' what makes it cool. You expect to be called "honey" by the waitressess with their hair up in a bun. Well they still call you "honey", or "youse guys" in a Philly-Delaware county accent, but their hair isn't in a bun as the wait staff is pretty youngish.
The last time I ate there the TV at the end of the counter was tuned to Cartoon Network and we were listening to Cowboy Bebop as we ate a late night snack.
After our "heart attack" breakfast Jamar and I went to see if he could get his glasses fixed in Springfield at the Lens Crafters, but no go, so it was Target and Super glue to the recuse, then headed back to my house and drew at the "round table of cartooning" also know as my dinning room table.
My brother Marc showed up, resembling a fish more than a man, totally soaked from the driving rain on his trip from South Philly to my casa. We all hung out, I worked some on the new cartoon Net, Adult Swim show I'm doing art for called Minoriteam. It's like those old Marvel toons from the 60's, a sperfriends type team made up of racial stereo types done in a Kirby Style, so the called me up to do cleanup-inking, essentially putting the stuff on a Kirby-model. We listened to music pumping from my apple laptop, and topped the evening off with some great Vietnamese food from Little Saigon, I had the pho , the hua soup, man that was justperfect meal on such a crappy, rainy day.
Wherever it is you live, it looks pretty nice there. I'm probably totally wrong, but are you on the west coast?
ReplyDeleteNope, I live right outside Philly.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteI've got a couple of those old "Silver Car" diners within a few miles of my house. One has the old Flo type waitresses and there's an autograph picture of Tommy Lasorda hanging on the wall.
Next time you guys make it up my way you'll have to check it out.
There's a place here in town (Los Angeles) called The Lamplighter that looks just like the Lanerch's interior. I get a cool vibe sitting in one of their booths because I feel like I'm a kid again.
ReplyDeletePity their service is so terrible or I'd eat there more often.
Rain is a rarity here in LA. (Huh, try saying THAT five times fast!) It's nice but I miss the melancholy feeling of a light drizzel.
ReplyDeleteYeah, nothing like a good diner and good diner food. I miss the old American cafe on 41st and Chestnut in West Philly, that was my hang for a few years, but there are a few diners left in South Philly like the Melrose. You can see hair-shirt mobsters mingle with the norms.
ReplyDeleteThe lanerch is really a relic, it's got tape on some seats, leaky ceiling in spots, a real character place too. Some of the people are so weird to watch...fun too. Yeah Rich, we'll have to scope the diners out your way, I think they will have a bit of a resurgence as people get tired of the fast-food-nation junk food most people get.