Almost everybody has a diner story. Sometimes the story isn’t really a story at all but a warm, ineffable memory set against a backdrop of buzzing neon. The best some people can do by way of explanation is, “I used to go to this place . . .,” at which point they drift into a past adorned with polished chrome and late-night cheeseburgers.
That’s the power of the American diner.
In the near future, Concord may have such a place to call its own. An application has been submitted to the city’s planning board for the state’s fourth Red Arrow, to be built on Loudon Road.
The flagship restaurant in Manchester is a favorite for barroom revelers ousted after last call and politicians jockeying for the support of Everyman. It has been featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, and Manchester’s own Adam Sandler immortalized it in his film Grown Ups 2.
Just how much any of that will help, or hurt, the Red Arrow’s chances in Concord should become clearer next month, when a public hearing is scheduled.
We wouldn’t bet against the diner.
If Americans were asked what should be included in a national time capsule, it’s not difficult to imagine how contentious the debate would be. It’s possible the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and a baseball would be the only no-brainers in the mix, but we’re pretty sure décor from a classic diner would get in with minimal opposition.
The American Diner Museum traces the birth of the diner to 1872, when a pressman named Walter Scott began selling food out of a horse-drawn express wagon to night workers in Providence, R.I. For the next five decades, such “greasy spoons” developed a reputation for catering to society’s riffraff, which spurred a movement in the 1920s to make them more family friendly. That effort continued into the postwar years, and with great success, but it was the dawn of the Space Age that ushered in the next, and most culturally significant, era of the American diner.
What better way, after all, for a newly prosperous nation, the clear victors in a war against true evil, to celebrate its good fortune than selling inexpensive comfort food inside a cozy dining car as bright and shiny as the country’s future?
Maybe a diner won’t transform Concord’s nightlife for the better. Maybe it will attract rowdy bar patrons who would be better off getting a ride home to sleep it off. Maybe a shining Red Arrow on Loudon Road won’t point to a brighter future for the city or the nation.
But decades from now, if a Concord resident far from home hears the word “diner” and says, “I used to go to this place . . .” as memory draws her back to happy nights on Loudon Road, it’s a win for the city.
That said, the biggest win for the city would be 24-hour bacon.