Diner Nostalgia and the Lost Art of the Open-Face Sandwich

• 50:53Tim had a great tuna melt at Eisenberg's, an old luncheonette by the Flatiron Building with open-face preparation and coleslaw.
• 51:12Open-face sandwiches: eat with a knife and fork, or pick up like french bread pizza—or fold it and potentially look like an asshole.
• 51:26The genius of open-face: restaurants only put one layer of cheese on a closed sandwich, but when you order it open-face, they have to add the other cheese.
• 52:09Missing diners: Long Island had killer diners, but the quality of cheap New York food has collapsed unless you spend serious money.
• 52:38People don't know better anymore so they eat mediocre diner food anyway, dropping fifty bucks for something that's fried gristle.
• 52:54Hipsters treat diners like some novelty experience, but the areas where they actually live have no diners.
• 53:15Tim's stepmother's sister makes a feast of seven fishes for Christmas Eve—calamari, scungilli, shrimp scampi—though she throws it all out at once instead of course by course.
• 53:42The shrimp scampi uses garlic powder with real garlic and a pound of butter because being trashy is what makes it good.
• 54:06When Tim's parents divorced, his stepmother's family—complete strangers like someone named Ben—showed up, and now he has to spend Christmas next to people he never met.
• 54:24Meeting his stepmother's family at Christmas leads to strangers asking if he's a comedian and bringing up Jerry Seinfeld.

Eisenberg'sdinersOlympic DinerLibbyFlat Iron BuildingRay Cump