He waited in the diner for three hours to confront Mr. Christie — saying he would have brought Vivian, but she was sick.
"I make about 110 matzo balls a day," said George Makras, who has owned the diner for six years with his brother Peter.
Nomi, in the new Park Hyatt, is also not for the once-a-week diner (lunch for two was $170), but Sandro Gamba, a French veteran of Joël Robuchon and Alain Ducasse, is showing his new heartland roots.
Owners like Mr. Karkambasis seem especially attuned to the idiosyncrasies of midday customers like Stan and Kay Rose of Yorktown, an elderly couple who drop by for lunch at his diner three or four times a week.
A rhinoceros, a cabby by trade, walks into a diner and asks for two eggs, sunny side up.
She drank coffee at the Economy Diner for more than two decades.
Rates vary, but in the case of a May 2 dinner with Daniel Boulud at Daniel restaurant in New York, bids currently start at 6,500 points for two diners.
You can find many great dinners that have been already modified for two diners on the Internet or in recipe books.
Ages, street addresses, dates and the prices of items as varied as a dish of beans, a.45 pistol and a gold-plated casket: people are forever comparing and adding up figures in the dying Pittsburgh diner that is the setting for "Two Trains Running".
Nearby is LUCKY'S (805-565-7540, about $120 for two), where diners who can resist the steaks and onion rings can opt for a superb Cobb salad.
