One of the defining aspects of any area or community is the restaurants within. There are plenty of cities known for having great seafood, or for having incredible Chinese food restaurants, or for having a vibrant community from a specific country that makes incredible food.

These restaurants go beyond serving food and function as cultural touchstones where the community gathers, where everyone goes, where gossip is spread, where accomplishments are celebrated, where people receive the comfort you only get from your home.

So, that said, what restaurant represents all of those things to you here in the Hudson Valley? I'm not looking to start conflicts here; I know how protective people are over their territories. We don't need to argue the merits of the restaurant in your town versus one in the town whose high school was your high school's football rival. Instead, lets shine a light on the different locations we have in the area that mean so much to people.

I'll get us started!

Google Maps
Google Maps
loading...

The Eveready Diner

When I think of both the quintessential Hudson Valley restaurant and the quintessential diner, my mind immediately jumps to the Eveready.

There are a number of reasons for this. First of all, it meets the most important criteria for diners: you can get breakfast at any time and basically anything else you could ever want, and it's open 24 hours, at least on the weekends.

Second of all, it's where I grew up. I spent most of my life within walking distance, so when it came time to gather for any occasion--or for complete lack of occasion--the Diner (it's never "Eveready" to me in casual discussion, it's always "the Diner") was the one and only spot.

I admittedly have a real affinity for Atomic Age Americana stuff--if I'm not reading books about early-to-mid 20th Century baseball players or boxers, I'm on a Wikipedia page about art deco or raygun gothic design. Think about the aesthetic of Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe at Disney World:

Or the early 1990s movie The Rocketeer:

You might be asking yourself: "Did Deuce really just embed the entire film of The Rocketeer into this blog post?"

To that, I say: "You're gosh darn right I did."

The Diner captures that essence, it feels like going back to an idealized type of place where your grandpa would have had a cup of coffee and read an article about Joe DiMaggio or Mel Ott in the newspaper (I have a traditional style portrait of Mel Ott from the 1926 New York Giants tattooed on my arm in case you want to know how deep my love of this era of Americana goes). You can almost smell the freshly-cut grass and simmering Cold War paranoia in the air as you eat your eggs over easy.

It so embodies the concept of an American diner that it was one of the earliest featured restaurants on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. In fact, my love of this place is one of the three things I have in common with Guy Fieri. The other two are our shared penchant for vicious sunglasses-sunburns and the fact that we are both incredibly successful media magnates with indescribable sums of mon--Hahahahahaha. Ahem.

So, anyway, what is your favorite restaurant in the Hudson Valley? What feels like home? And why?

More From WPDH-WPDA