Finer Diners

I love a great diner. 

And there's no finer New York City diner, or "coffee shop," than Viand, located on the northeast corner of East 61st Street and Madison Avenue. (“Viand” used to mean “food.”) My parents introduced me to this hole-in-the-wall in 1978, two years after it opened, and my sister, later Joe, and I have been cramming ourselves in there ever since. 

Inside Viand

Viand is narrow and not for the claustrophobic. You don’t eat there for the ambience; you go for the fantastic turkey off-the-bone sandwiches with Thousand Island dressing, split pea soup, burgers, and other classic diner fare.

“Anybody who’s anybody goes there,” a real estate power broker told the New York Post in 2016. Viand is a great equalizer—celebrities are aware of its secret and often dine there alongside regular New Yorkers. Before Barneys went out of business, shopped-out fashionistas flocked to Viand, which was cattycorner from the famous clothing Mecca.

My mom, being the way she always was, used to have the doorman at the old Regency Hotel (located just one short, walkable block east on Park Avenue) deliver breakfast from Viand to her and my nieces.

Then there are the all-night diners—a disappearing breed, according to a recent New York Times article.

Me with Hopper's masterpiece

The American artist Edward Hopper captured the romance of the all-night diner in his famous “Nighthawks,” which hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago. While many see the work as soaked in loneliness and urban isolation, I also notice a more mysterious attraction. Who are these people? What draws them to a diner in the middle of the night? What time is it? What are they thinking about?

Washington Square Diner

New York’s 24/7 Washington Square Diner used to be one of my favorite late-night spots. It was the kind of place that sold rice pudding, half-cantaloupes with cottage cheese inside the cavity, and had display cases full of blueberry and apple pie slices. I would go there to read and munch fries at 2 am.
 

Here in Cleveland, two popular diners have been lost to fire. Diana’s in Lakewood used to be a lively all-night spot until a recent blaze destroyed it. And in Cleveland Heights, the 1950s train diner car on Lee Road was a stylish upscale venue, The Katz Club, for a time, until a disgruntled employee set it on fire. (Now it’s the unlikely home of an excellent Chinese restaurant.)

With Joe at Le Bernardin, 2024

I am just as happy eating diner food as I am enjoying haute cuisine. Last year, Joe and I had my belated birthday dinner at Le Bernardin, New York’s well-known fine dining institution. The meal was surreal, with some dishes surpassing superlatives. But I would have been just as content eating at Viand.

Greek diners (or coffee shops), once a ubiquitous mainstay of New York’s dining scene, are scarcer these days. Their iconic blue-and-gold paper coffee cups, featuring the slogan “We are happy to serve you,” have mostly disappeared.

Luckily, Viand is still happy to serve you the turkey sandwich of your dreams. Go for it next time you find yourself on the Upper East Side.

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