Fine Dining in The Dining Car

The Dining Car diner just outside Philadelphia, PA is where we stop for martinis and pies when we drive home.  Well, to be more accurate we stop so I can have a BLT with ONE martini and hubster has a salad and settles for a Pepsi as they don't sell Coke. We stop off here on our way home to avoid the heavy rush hour traffic for about 45 minutes before driving on.  Then afterwards, we usually buy some really terrific butter cookies or a super blueberry pie to take to our Bible study group. It's a nice place to eat and it's always filled up with local customers, mostly old greying couples. And the waitresses are very perky and helpful and the food is priced right. So it's fine dining.

Beer Til 2 A.M. at San Antonio Grill

View of the bar

For dinner we went out to the local Tex-Mex restaurant called San Antonio Grill as it was one of the boy's birthdays. Although the food was pretty good, and their small margarita does the trick, the service was really slow. It took over 35 minutes to get the special of the night -  a BLT! -- and nachos with black beans. We went through two bowls of hot tomato salsa and chips while waiting! However, the wait was likely because one of our party ordered lobster and steak so we all had to wait for that!  I did complain to the waitress a little but she said it was because they only had one cook that night.  Also, by the time we were finishing up dinner, about 9:30 pm, it looked like the restaurant was closing up. Waiters were scurrying around removing tables and chairs and stacking them in an adjoining room. A little annoyed as it seemed like they were shutting up the shop, I asked the waitress what was going on. She said it was Monday Night College Night and the place would soon become standing room only for the $3 margaritas and $2 beers they serve until 2 a.m. So that's why the chairs and tables were being removed. We also asked where all the pictures we usually see on the walls had gone. She said they take them down as the students get kind of crazy and will take anything that isn't nailed down!  We left soon after this and the manager apologized as we left, presumably for the late food and the furniture disturbance.  We just couldn't figure out why anyone would go out drinking on a Monday night and surmised it was recovery for the students from the first day of the week. Unbelievable! And how badly behaved, taking pictures off the walls!

Side Trip to Philly, Dinner in the Dining Car

View from the diner window

Lamp over each booth

On our way back from visiting our son in Pennsylvania, we occasionally stop at a diner, The Dining Car, for a quiet meal and to avoid the local traffic that clogs up Route 95 during the dinner hour. One of the reasons we like to eat here is that the food is edible and cheap, it seems clean, and the service is quick and they serve just about anything you might want in a diner. It's also barely a stone's throw from the main road so we don't feel like we are getting too far off our way and of course, it has lots of parking and you can tell from the car number plates that it's a local favorite. I can get a nice martini with my Cobb salad or french fries and it seems like the portions are not too large and not too small. My husband can get his onion soup too and he will settle for a Pepsi there, although he'll give the waitress a hard time about it being a non-Coke establishment. The customers don't look like customers in DC restaurants:  there's lots of groups of older people eating together, families with teen kids, twosomes of 60 year old guys, or trios of women in their 70s eating together so the ambiance doesn't feel like the capital city.  It makes me realize how the DC Demographic is quite different comparatively.  What's nice is the decor has some very nice deco elements too, such as in the lamps and the overall appearance of the building. We've also gotten our favorite BLTs and bought cookies in the bakery shop on our way out. So you can see, this is a very useful place for us to go on our travels.100 miles away from the capital city and you are in another part of God's country.  As it turns out, this diner is featured in Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: An All-American Road Trip, a book listed on Amazon.com!  Who knew! I never read it but I hope the author gave them a good grade!