The Diner - Norman, OK

The Diner in Norman, Oklahoma is most definitely a dive in the best kind of way.  It is small with all of the stereotypical drippings of a diner such as lots of pink neon everywhere, the long counter with the round swivel stools and a row of vinyl covered booths.  There is nothing pretentious about it.

Norman is a college town.  This is the kind of place that I could imagine college students rolling into after a night out on the town in the middle of the morning for some eggs to sop up whatever adult beverage they over-enjoyed that night.

I was there for lunch.  Even I am not that much of a hero to have begun drinking early in the morning.  I ordered the Santa Fe chicken sandwich.  It came with some ruffle chips probably out of a large bag in the back.

The sandwich itself was really pretty good.  It was piping hot so, I opened it up to let the heat out.  The waitress came over concerned.  She thought that something was wrong.  She was pretty good; obviously attentive and caring.  She was fast with everything she did.  She had to be because she was a one-person wait staff.  That didn't seem to bother her.  She seemed to have it well under control.

A student photographer came into the restaurant.  She was photographing the people and the place.  She photographed a guy at the bar then asked for his information for a model release.  He obliged, no problem.

I could see becoming a regular here if I lived in Norman.  The Diner is probably a place that you wear like an old shoe.  It is just comfortable.  It is a place where real people just live unpretentiously.  It doesn't even have a real name.

I liked The Diner.  The food was pretty good but the atmosphere just seemed really homey.  I'd give it a 8.8.  Definitely try it out and stay a while.

The Diner
213 E Main St
Norman, OK 73069
(405) 329-6642 

Ingrid's Kitchen - Oklahoma City, OK

Ingrid's calls themselves Euro-American cuisine.  I would probably consider them a German bakery/deli/cafeteria with a mix of  Other-European and American thrown in.  When you first come in the door, you have to grab a menu and wait in line to order.  When you pay they give you a number on a stand so that the food runners can find you.

The menu has a lot of German dishes.  It looks like they make their own sausages (wuerst) onsite.   I had the Weiner Schnitzel sandwich with a tabouli salad.  Wein is German for Vienna which is in Austria but, you find it everywhere in Germany.  Tabouli is a Mediterranean dish which has nothing to do with Western Europe.

While you are waiting in line, you have to stand in front of the glass bakery cases.  The cakes and pastries looked really good but, I was good and stayed away.  Not good for blog reporting but good for my personal health. 

After you pay there is another set of cases with freshly baked bread and an evil guillotine looking thing presumably to slice bread or punish patrons who get out of line.

We arrived at the lunch hour, so the food took a little bit of time to arrive.  There is not much in the way of service to talk about.  One of the waitress had a thick German accent.   I'm guessing that she might have been Ingrid herself.  She was in much too much of a hurry to strike a conversation up with. So, I may never know.

The tabouli salad was very good.  The tomato that they used was especially good for this time of year in February.  It comes on a plate with a leaf of lettuce.  The Weiner Schnitzel was pretty good but, the bread that they served it on was really good.  It must have come from their own ovens in the back.

My lunch partner just got a turkey and cheese sandwich.  He was really impressed with the gouda cheese.  The sliced bread looked really good and he said that it was.

The restaurant is in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood a little off of the beaten track in Oklahoma City.  The building is painted with the German national colors along the roof line.  German signage is everywhere inside and the men's room was wallpapered with old editions of German newspapers and magazines.

This is probably a good place for drinks after work and on the weekends.  They served lots of different kinds of German beer.  There was a room in the back that looked made for drinking.

Overall, I would give Ingrid's a 8.5 on the triple-D scale.  The food was really good but, not necessarily unique like you would expect out of a triple-D joint.  The atmosphere was good but again, not blow your socks off.  It is worth checking out and I would definitely go here again. 

Ingrid's Kitchen
3701 North Youngs
Oklahoma, OK 73112
405 946-8444
http://www.ingridskitchen.com/

Grandpa's - Dania Beach, FL

I had just stepped off of a flight hungry and with a little time to kill.  Grampa's was close enough to the Ft. Lauderdale airport to make this breakfast visit possible.  My stomach was growling as I rolled into Dania Beach.

Inside and out there were pictures of Guy Fiere and the Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives logo.  This is usually a bad sign.  When you first walk in you are in the bakery section.  It is obvious to me that this is an Italian bakery.  They even had black and whites which you really only find in New York.  It all looked really good.

The diner menu looked like any diner menu: nothing really special.  I wasn't really sure what set this place apart until the complimentary pastries arrived at my table.  They were bite sized cherry, peach, and I think lemon filled pastries that come out as an appetizer.  They were a meal unto themselves.  Restraint was definitely in order.  Though I could see how some people might just come in to order just coffee and make a meal out of the free pastries.  But, that's not what I did. 

The waiter was very fast and friendly and sold me on the special.  The Eggs Benedict were the special this morning.  I didn't pause to think about it too hard.  I just rolled with it.   As it turned out, the eggs Benedict were okay.   Maybe they were the best I've ever had and maybe they weren't. Who knows?  The hash browns were like any that you might get at any Waffle House.  It was at that point that I realized that the pastries were the star of the show here and were what made this place kind of unique.

The atmosphere was typical diner.  Again, nothing really out of the ordinary.  I would give Grandpa's an 8.0 on the triple-d scale.

Grampa's Bakery & Restaurant
17 SW 1st St
Dania, FL 33004
(954) 923-2163
www.grampasbakery.com/