Face it Leah, the Durango Diner is in Durango, Colorado. It’s not in Chicago and it is certainly not in London. There is no green chile, there are no plate sized pancakes, no hash browns from Idaho’s best, and no bottomless cup of coffee. There is however, “Ed’s Diner” on King’s Road in Chelsea. Ed’s is a lot like Ed Debevic’s in Chicago–50’s and 60’s music, black and white checkered walls, juke box on each table, and a menu almost entirely composed of burgers. Burgers, Chicken burgers, and veggie burgers. French fries–plain, wet, cheesy, and chile cheese. Oh and a couple shakes and sundaes… So, it was much more like a drive-in burger joint than a diner. Three super-gay waiters replaced edgy, diner waitresses. However, the coffee was diner coffee–bad diner coffee, but better bad coffee than other just bad coffees I’ve had lately. If I stick with espresso, I’m fine. If I have filtered coffee…. let me dry my eyes… sniff, okay… I was just thinking about the Kona I had every day at home at the shop. Sniff. Sniff.
Anyway, maybe I’ll move to Durango and apprentice at the Diner, learn how to make Green Chile and then move my knowledge back to London and show people what it means to put the title “Diner” on a restaurant.