In 1929 the site was occupied by a lunch cart that provided hot food to workers in the area. It was succeeded by a prefabricated diner built by the Ward & Dickinson Dining Car Company. The current building was erected in 1941 and originally called Lil's Diner. It is a "Silk City Diner model,[3] manufactured by the Paterson Vehicle Company in Paterson, New Jersey, one of the leading diner manufacturers of the time. The building is typical of the prefabricated diners that were common from the 1920s through the 1940s, built to resemble railroad cars and incorporating elements of Art Deco design. With its interior of cherry wood and porcelain enamelled steel and a geometrically tiled floor, it is one of the few pre-World War II diners in the United States in near-original condition.[4] The interior was depicted by the photorealist artist Ralph Goings in his 1993 painting Miss Albany Diner.[5]
The diner changed hands over the years and was called successively Elaine's, the Firehouse Diner, and the Street Car Diner. The "Miss Albany" name was shared by a chain of several now defunct Miss Albany Diners owned by Stillman Pitts which were popular in Albany during the 1920s,[6] one of which (on Central Avenue) is explicitly mentioned in William Kennedy's novel Roscoe.[7] When Kennedy's earlier novel Ironweed was made into a film in 1986, the diner was restored for use as one of the film's principal locations and given the name "Miss Albany Diner".[1] At the time, a product placement bidding war ensued between Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola over whose logo would be on the top of the diner.[8]
Cliff Brown years
Miss Albany Diner in April 2010
In 1988, after the filming of Ironweed ended, the diner was bought by Cliff Brown and his wife Jane. Cliff Brown, a former Albany resident and retired insurance salesman for New York Life, gave it the name used in the film, which it has retained to the present day.[4] At Brown's initiative, the building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 6, 2000 and won a Preservation Merit Award in 2002 from the Historic Albany Foundation.[2][9] In late 2009, Brown was 82 and wanted to retire. The diner was put up for sale,[10] but as of 2010, it had still not been sold and continued to be run by Jane Brown.[11]
The Miss Albany Diner served breakfast, lunch and coffee on a "cash only" basis and was open Tuesday through Sunday until 2:15 pm, with both waiter and take-out service.[11] Its signature dishes included:
The dishes were created by the owners' son Bill Brown, who had been a chef at the diner for many years.[15] Mad Irish Toast was named one of the "Best Bites of 2002" by the Chicago Sun-Times.[16]
Later years
Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar in 2021
In February 2012, two years after Clifford Brown's death, the diner was purchased by Matthew Baumgartner, the head of a property company that owns a nearby beer garden and several other restaurants in Albany. Baumgartner said that the diner's structure would be retained when he and his partners develop the site, but that there were no plans to run it as a diner. Jane Brown and her son retained the rights to the "Miss Albany Diner" name and its signature recipes. The Miss Albany served its last meal as a diner on February 10, 2012.[17][18]
In 2015, the diner re-opened under new owner David Zheng as Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar, with new booths, seating about 45 for lunch and dinner daily.[19] Half of the counter remained at the original height, and half was raised to bar height with bar chairs.[19]
↑ Kennedy, William, Roscoe, Penguin Books, 2002, p. 26. ISBN0-14-200173-2 ("He drove to the Miss Albany Diner on Central Avenue, open all night, found it dark. A sign in the window reported, 'No Food'.")
↑ Ontiveros, Sue, "Best Bites of 2002: Beguiling and delicious, these are the winners for our year", Chicago Sun-Times, January 2, 2003. Retrieved via subscription 22 September 2002.
Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes; there is an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. Side dishes often consist of fish, pickled vegetables, and vegetables cooked in broth. Seafood is common, often grilled, but also served raw as sashimi or in sushi. Seafood and vegetables are also deep-fried in a light batter, as tempura. Apart from rice, a staple includes noodles, such as soba and udon. Japan also has many simmered dishes, such as fish products in broth called oden, or beef in sukiyaki and nikujaga.
Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a broth; common flavors are soy sauce and miso, with typical toppings including sliced pork, nori, menma, and scallions. Ramen has its roots in Chinese noodle dishes. Nearly every region in Japan has its own variation of ramen, such as the tonkotsu ramen of Kyushu and the miso ramen of Hokkaido.
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis; condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, or a "special sauce", often a variation of Thousand Island dressing; and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger patty topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger.
Albany is the capital and oldest city in the U.S. state of New York and the seat of and the most populous city in the county of the same name. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about 135 miles (220 km) north of New York City.
French toast is a dish of sliced bread soaked in beaten eggs and often milk or cream, then pan-fried. Alternative names and variants include eggy bread, Bombay toast, gypsy toast, and poor knights (of Windsor).
Eggs Benedict is a common American breakfast or brunch dish, consisting of two halves of an English muffin, each topped with Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was popularized in New York City.
The horseshoe is an open-faced sandwich originating in Springfield, Illinois, United States. It consists of thick-sliced toasted bread, a hamburger patty or other choice of meat, French fries, and cheese sauce.
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist who won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his 1983 novel Ironweed.
Noodle soup refers to a variety of soups with noodles and other ingredients served in a light broth. Noodle soup is a common dish across East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Himalayan states of South Asia. Various types of noodles are used, such as rice noodles, wheat noodles and egg noodles.
A slinger is an American Midwest diner specialty typically consisting of two eggs, hash browns, and a ground beef patty, all covered in chili con carne and generously topped with cheese and onions. The eggs can be any style. Hot sauce is usually served on the side. The slinger is considered to be a St. Louis late-night culinary original. It is described as "a hometown culinary invention: a mishmash of meat, hash-fried potatoes, eggs, and chili, sided with your choice of ham, sausage, bacon, hamburger patties, or an entire T-bone steak.
Slingerlands is a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, New York, United States. It is located immediately west of Delmar and near the New Scotland town-line and south of the Albany city-limits, and is thus a suburb of Albany. The Slingerlands ZIP Code (12159) includes parts of the towns of New Scotland and Guilderland.
Lark Street is a historic street in Albany, New York, US. It is part of the Arbor Hill, Sheridan Hollow, Center Square, Park South and Hudson/Park neighborhoods, and is located one block east of Washington Park. Lark Street is the site of many independently owned shops, coffee houses, restaurants, art galleries, antique shops, marketing agencies, bars and tattoo shops. Although the part between Madison Avenue and Washington Avenue was rebuilt in 2002-2003 to place new roadways, trees and sidewalks in front of the new shops in the active portion of Lark Street, some local residents have protested against the neglect of the northern end of the street, which runs down into the less-affluent Arbor Hill neighborhood. Lark Street and Jay Street was used as a location during the filming of Ironweed. The Washington Avenue Armory is located at the corner of Lark Street and Washington Avenue.
The cuisine of New Jersey is derived from the state's long immigrant history and its close proximity to both New York City and Philadelphia. Due to its geographical location, New Jersey can generally be divided by New York City cuisine in the northern and central parts of the state and Philadelphia cuisine in the southern parts. Restaurants in the state often make use of locally grown ingredients such as asparagus, blueberries, cranberries, tomatoes, corn, and peaches. New Jersey is particularly known for its diners, of which there are approximately 525, the most of any state. Various foods invented in the state, such as the pork roll, and salt water taffy, remain popular there today.
There are 75 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Albany, New York, United States. Six are additionally designated as National Historic Landmarks (NHLs), the most of any city in the state after New York City. Another 14 are historic districts, for which 20 of the listings are also contributing properties. Two properties, both buildings, that had been listed in the past but have since been demolished have been delisted; one building that is also no longer extant remains listed.
The area of New York's Capital District, also known as the Albany metropolitan area, has seen prominent historical events, artistic creations, and unique contributions to the culture of the United States since the 17th century. The largest city in the area, Albany, consistently ranks high on lists of top cities/metro areas for culture, such as being 23rd in the book Cities Ranked & Rated. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area ranked 12th among large metro areas, and Glens Falls ranked 12th among the small metro areas, in Sperling's Best Places, and Expansion Management gave the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area five Stars, its highest ranking, for quality of life features.
The architecture of Albany, New York, embraces a variety of architectural styles ranging from the early 18th century to the present. The city's roots date from the early 17th century and few buildings survive from that era or from the 18th and early 19th century. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 triggered a building boom, which continued until the Great Depression and the suburbanization of the area afterward. This accounts for much of the construction in the city's urban core along the Hudson River. Since then most construction has been largely residential, as the city spread out to its current boundaries, although there have been some large government building complexes in the modernist style, such as Empire State Plaza, which includes the Erastus Corning Tower, the tallest building in New York outside of New York City.
North Albany is a neighborhood in the city of Albany, New York. North Albany was settled in the mid-17th century by the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck and his tenants and later became a hamlet in the town of Watervliet. Due to the Erie Canal being constructed in 1825, North Albany saw immense growth, with the Albany Lumber District and an influx of Irish immigrants lending the area the name of Limerick. Home to many historic warehouses and row houses, North Albany continues to be an important industrial neighborhood. Recent efforts have begun to gentrify the neighborhood by adapting heavy industry/warehouse use to artistic and entertainment venues, such as a German beer garden, an amusement park, live music venues, and arts and crafts marketplaces.
A Seattle-style hot dog, locally referred to as a Seattle Dog, is a hot dog topped with cream cheese and sautéed onions and served in a pretzel bun that is often sold from late night or game day food carts in Seattle.
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