Past Visits to the Miss Albany Diner

Published on Friday, 10 February 2012 09:24

Written by Randy Garbin

Every visit to the Miss Albany Diner was a special time for me. I didn’t visit nearly as often as I wanted, but when I did, I spent plenty of time. In fact, on one visit, I sat and chatted the hours away with the Brown family for so long, I ended up spending the night at their house.

I first stepped through the door back in about May of 1991, not long after I heard about the place from Harvey Kaplan, a local artist, who told me about the three large styrofoam French fries hanging from the ceiling. Each one was labeled “1”, “2”, and “3” respectively with varying degrees of darkness to indicate how you wanted them cooked. Threes meant extra crispy. Ones not so much. Twos perhaps just right.

Upon hearing about that and the giant RCA “Nipper” dog nearby, I jumped into my car and hit the road the very next day. That began a twenty-​three year love affair with a place I know I will never see the likes of again.