For Garrison Leykam, the classic American diner isn’t just about good food at a low price – although that is certainly part of it.
“To me, (the diner) means family, commitment, hard work and a love of what they do,” Leykam told a gathering of local residents following a presentation Monday at the Derby Public Library.
A self-described diner enthusiast, Leykam hosts an online radio program titled “Those Diners and Motorcycle Guys,” and has produced a show on Connecticut Public Television called “Diners.”
His latest work is a 174-page book titled “Classic Diners of Connecticut” which was released last November and is available online and in some local bookstores.
Leykam has been touring the state and he was in Derby Monday to talk about the history and culture of diners, as well as the struggles they today.
The book is intended to “capture that diner experience,” said Leykam, a Farmington resident.
His book includes an appearance by a local landmark — Tony’s Diner, the venerable eatery on Route 67 in Seymour that serves as a time machine to the golden age of diners.
Leykam said owner Tony Librandi keeps a set of photos in his desk at Tony’s Diner that depict the Flood of 1955.
Only about a year old and known as Nash’s Diner at the time, Tony’s Diner fortunately made it through with little damage, Leykam said.
While the economy can be hard on diners, Librandi will occasionally look back at those flood photos as reminders that “no matter how bad it seems, it could always be worse,” Leykam recounted.
Click here for more on Tony’s Diner.
“Classic Diners of Connecticut” chronicles the history of diners in the Nutmeg state, from their humble beginnings as food trucks in 1872 in Rhode Island to today, where more 100 diners still dot the Connecticut landscape.
Most of the book, however, profiles several of these individual Connecticut diners, as well as the owners who now run them and the histories behind them.
“Diners are the great equalizer,” he said. “There’s a common thread everyone has about being in them. Whenever I do these talks I hear stories, like the one tonight, of a husband and wife who met in a diner, or a businessman who landed that big sales deal during a meeting at a diner.”
And don’t forget the lingo that goes along with that classic diner experience. During the 1950s, waitresses began creating crazy-sounding names to describe their orders to the cooks, because often times diners would get loud and they would have to shout orders in, Leykam said.
So, for the uninitiated, if you hear someone call for “Adam and Eve on a log” then that means they’re getting two poached eggs and sausage. “Blowout patches” are pancakes, and “shingles with a shimmy and a shake” is a bagel with butter and jam.
“I’ve got four pages of this stuff,” Leykam said, garnering laughs from the roughly 35 people in attendance.
Leykam said he’s been working on the book for about five years, and during that time had visited dozens of Connecticut diners from the Post Road up to North Canaan and over to Groton.
So how do you classify a “real” classic diner?
“Diner purists will say it has to have a grill behind the counter, a place to wait at out front, and it has to be historically restored,” he said, noting that most classic diners were built before the 1960s.
But, that’s just part of it.
“You can measure a classic diner by the experience you’ve had,” he said. “A lot of it is a personal thing.”
