RoadsideOnline

Fret not, diner purists. We brought our own maple syrup for these very good banana pancakes. No, we didn't try the home fries, which we do regard as a true litmus of any breakfast menu. Next time.

The good good breakfast is truly an elusive commodity around here. While we have no shortage of breakfast joints, diners, and diner wannabees, a true standout has yet to come to the older suburbs north of Philadelphia and south of the turnpike. Still, we keep looking. We'd like to find some place that serves up something a little better and more creative than just the standard eggs, pancakes, and French toast affair found throughout this region. And if only someone around here would features a real homemade corned beef hash. If I miss New England for only one thing, it's that.

Yesterday, during the big snowstorm, we decided to give the Moonlight Diner another chance. Mrs. Roadside remembers it as the Kenyon Diner, where she and her high school friends would tumble into after her late night bacchanals. Since then, the diner changed hands and names a few times. I can't say for sure, but I also suspect that despite its current appearance, a real prefab structure once stood at this location. Today, you'd have great difficulty discerning any original features. Only the general footprint of the place indicates the possibility of any real diner heritage.

Economics professors like to talk about economies of scale. It's a popular notion for those who want to grow a financial empire (and to an MBA candidate why else would anyone want to be in business?).

Economies of scale means that the more of anything you buy the better a per-unit price you can negotiate because the more a seller stands to add to their bottom line with each sale. It also means that's many per-purchase expenses, such as the ones associated with documentation, shipping, etc., can be reduced simply by making fewer purchases. Figure it takes as long to retrieve and package ten widgets as it does to do so with one widget.

Allie's Donuts in North Kingstown, Rhode Island

Consider the humble doughnut.

It's a simple pastry. Mix a few basic ingredients into dough, roll the dough out, cut circles from the rolled-out dough, and deep-fry. Sure, there are a million ways to enhance a

doughnut's simple base with frostings and fillings, sugar and cinnamon. But the essence of a doughnut remains - humble.

As is often the case, though, making such a simple item special is anything but simple. And as the doughnut has seen its status as a breakfast-staple diminish, there is less incentive than ever to make much of an effort to do it.

Diner historian and director of the Johnson & Wales Culinary Museum Richard Gutman just sent us this photo showing the stunning progress of the former Berlin Diner's restoration. Currently owned by Claire Bergeron, the diner has sat on this location since 2003 after Claire purchased the structure from Steve Gasior and moved it from East Hampton, Connecticut to the Otis Rotary in Pocasset, Massachusetts.

The diner as it appeared in 2003.

Longtime readers of this site remember poor Steve and his efforts to restore this diner using the services of Daniel Zilka. Amazingly enough, even after that debacle, Zilka was hired again by Claire to finish that work, which he didn't.

Happily, Claire finally found Steve Spencer, an associate of Richard's at the museum, who apparently possesses the ability to do this work. Steve was also assisted by his son and Richard.

No word yet on what Claire plans to call the diner, which replaces the former Tin Man Diner, a Sterling Streamliner was destroyed by arson and which currently rots away in storage in Westport, Massachusetts.