Other types of quick-eating places originating in the United States are the drugstore counter, serving sandwiches or other snacks; the lunch counter, where the diner is served a limited quick-order menu at the counter; and the drive-in, "drive-thru," or drive-up restaurant, where patrons are served in their automobiles.
While most other hot pots revolve around cooking your own meat and vegetables, Boiling Point is the lazy man's version: Each diner is served an individual pot, near overflowing with whatever you order.
Over an evening that can stretch to three hours, diners are served dishes dotted with caviar and 24-karat gold flakes (for the iron, the chef notes).
"When did eating out become a Broadway show?" wonders a patron (John Corbett) who watches from the bar, impressed by the improvisations when the power goes out and the diners are served by candlelight.
The extra diners were served crocodile-based dishes while Sugiyama cooked up the exclusive meal.
At a recent dinner, held June 28 in the heavily hipster-treaded neighborhood of Williamsburg, diners were served a six-course meal that included zucchini rolls with white cannellini beans and roasted rosemary, as well as a spicy vermicelli noodle dish.
And the way I met him was I just happened to be in a diner that was serving something called "Indian tacos," which I had never heard of before.
Meanwhile, when Mr. Margolin, who lives nearby on Abingdon Square, stepped outside of his apartment on Tuesday morning, he saw that La Bonbonniere, the local diner on Eighth Avenue, was serving coffee and eggs cooked on its gas grill.
A liquor store and the Kellogg's diner, where coffee is served 24 hours a day, are a half-block east, and in the mornings a half-block to the west, Josephine Belle and Mary Lou Amato hand out paper bags with bagels at Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
No alcohol is served; diners can bring their own.
