Kelly's Diner: Somerville MA
We've heard great things about Kelly's Diner in Somerville. Its Ball Square location makes it convenient, and a favorite, of both students and locals. We picked up our friend James in Cambridge and set out to try it out. A line out the front door is a good sign, but not proof. (People wait in line for bad food, too! Hello, Cheesecake Factory?) While waiting I noticed the cool custom grill work on the stairs with red "K"s. Nice touch.
When we made it to the front of the line, we spent a few minutes standing uncomfortably squeezed between a James Dean statue and an oversized 1950's style jukebox.
Looking around, I noticed the stereotypical Betty Boop and Marilyn paraphernalia as well. While I generally dislike this sort of stuff at diners, I will give Kelly's a little leeway because it is a 1953 O'Mahoney diner. Unlike 50's stuff decorating a diner from the 30's, at least this one is in the right era. I couldn't help but think that they could've fit an extra booth or server station where the jukebox was taking up space.
The menu had a nice selection, I decided to go with my standard Veggie & Cheese Omelet. Feeling decadent, I added a grilled bagel. The first thing i noticed when the food arrived was the home fries. Were they actually hash browns? (A regional debate that we need to write up on its own someday soon.) Sadly, they turned out to me massively overcooked home fries; left in the steam pan so long that they were bland, chunky mashed potatoes. I don't remember any details about the omelet except that it was bland. Grilled bagel = always delicious.
Darius ordered a Monte Christo from the lunch menu, so it came with potato salad and a pickle. Even though it came with lots of meat, there was nothing memorable about the taste of the sandwich, and the potato salad was "ok". James ordered a Mexican Omelet from the specials board, and really enjoyed it. I believe it had salsa, cheese, and probably some type of meat in it.
People who live near it claim that Kelly's in the best breakfast in the area. I was a waitress for many years, so I know full well that our bland food may have been anomaly of a busy Sunday, short staff, or new cook. We will certainly try it again before forming our final opinion of this place.
(
google map)
674 Broadway
Somerville, MA 02144
(617) 623-8102
Labels: Kelly's Diner, review, Somerville
Yankee Diner: Charlton, MA
Dharia and I used to see Chris and Deb's Yankee Diner driving down Route 20 all the time, but we were always either too busy to stop or the place was closed. But a few months ago, we were cutting around holiday traffic coming back from VA, and we noticed that the place was open for lunch! We took the opportunity to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat.
The diner itself is gorgeous on the outside despite the rather ugly protrusion of the front waiting area. For some reason I just love green diners.
The inside is neat, too. There are actual porcelain panels on the inside of the diner, which is kind of a rarity. Also, there's a strange back room that kind of cuts into the diner space which used to be the tiny kitchen, but is now an office for the owner. According to the owner (I can only assume we were speaking to Deb), that room had been there since the beginning and was not a modification as we'd originally suspected.
The menu was actually pretty small. There wasn't much on the menu in the way of vegetarian food, but Dharia ordered a grilled cheese and tomato with french fries. Deb suggested she try it on seeded rye, which turned out to be a good suggestion. The fries were tasty, and Dharia liked her sandwich, which was crispy and had just the right amount of melting on the cheese (which is sometimes hard to do when there's tomato in there.
I ordered a chili bowl and a cheeseburger club. I was not planning on ordering the chili, but the smell from behind the counter coerced me. I was not disappointed: the chili was great! And I'm picky about my chili. It didn't hurt that they added big chunks of fresh chopped onions to my bowl. Man oh man, do I like fresh onions with my chili.
The cheeseburger club was also pretty good, although less remarkable than the chili. Overall, I was very happy with my meal.
The other great thing about the diner was that the lunch crowd really seemed to have a rapport with all of the employees. It was fun just listening to them banter back and forth. All of the staff was very friendly and we had a great time talking to them about the history of the diner.
Speaking of history: the Yankee Diner is a 1947 Worcester Diner, originally located in Southbridge. I can't remember when it moved to Charlton. Sorry I don't know more!
They're open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays, breakfast only on weekends.
You can check out the rest of our photos of the Yankee Diner
here.
Chris and Deb's Yankee Diner
23 Worcester Rd (Route 20)
Charlton, MA 01507
508-248-7370
(
Google map)
Labels: review
Fun Diner Observation
When not eating at diners, I work on software. As such, I read a lot of articles about software. I was delighted to see that my favorite author on the topic of software just included a few observations about New York diners in
his latest article:
It’s one of those classic New York diners, like the one on Seinfeld. There’s a thirty page menu and a kitchen the size of a phone booth. It doesn’t make sense. They must have Star Trek technology to get all those ingredients into such a small space. Maybe they rearrange atoms on the spot.
Labels: new york
Bad Experience at the Deluxe
A few weeks ago, a friend of ours mentioned that they'd had a bad experience eating breakfast at the Deluxe Town Diner here in Watertown, MA. They said that the food was pretty bad. This surprised us a lot, because it's quite possibly our
favorite local diner! We surmised that there must have been a staff change.
We had dinner there shortly afterwards, and everything was fine. The food and service were as good as usual, so we just assumed our friend had caught the diner on an off day.
But we just had breakfast there this morning, and I'm sad to report that the food was in fact, really pretty bad. Dharia and I each ordered an omelet. First of all, the omelets were not folded on a big grill, but rather they looked like they were cooked in a small pan. They came out with a funny circular shape. Second, the omelets were not even omelets at all! They tasted like overcooked frittatas (here's an article about
the difference between an omelet and a frittata). It was a rubbery egg disk, not the big, light, fluffy omelet we usually get served. The goat cheese in Dharia's omelet was like a small-curd, non-goat cheese. The French toast was also disappointingly overcooked. The poached eggs, however, were good, and the Nashoba Bakery bread was as tasty as ever.
It looks like the morning staff has some people who literally don't know how to make an omelet, while the evening staff is still great. So, I have to revise my recommendation on the Deluxe Town Diner: go there in the evenings, but not in the mornings. At least you can still get breakfast at night, done right.
Labels: review
