I went here for lunch today with my boss, Julia Caswell Daitch. It looks like it does mostly a carry-out business, which is what we ended up doing. I had the Jerk Chicken, she had the Chicken Curry. Both were excellent.

This diner is a 1950s Kullman Dinette model, and originally operated as the Short Stop Diner. The window counter is still there, but now there are also tables. The backbar equipment, grill, refrigerator, etc. has been removed. The counter and floor have been replaced. But the stools, stainless and Kullman tag are still in-tact.

Llanerch Diner Website

My father, a frequent companion on my diner hunting expeditions and road trips, has recently started his own blog, with his fantastic photographs and writing.

Check it out! NeonDreamscapes

This one is in someone’s front yard, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that their house is in the former diner’s back yard. The diner looks to be a homebuilt, probably dating from the 1920s or 1930s. It has a brick front, with “DINER” painted in block letters on the front, just as it would have been on the enamel panels of a factory built diner of that period.

This was my first diner. I was about two months old when my parents visited it (me in tow) in 1991. Did those early experiences somehow lead me down this path of coffee, scrapple and neon? One can only speculate.

Here’s a comparison with a ’60s postcard and a view from today. The diner was built in 1932, most likely an on-site construction. It’s a barrel roof diner, later remodeled with a stucco and brick exterior, shed roof, knotty pine interior and a (now missing) glass brick counter.

Here’s a side by side- 1991 and 2011.

Shot through the window.

The Rainbow Diner is an early Mountain View diner. It is serial number 234, which places it at c. 1946. It has red enamel flutes with glass brick corners and extra-large cowcatchers. Over the years, a dining room has been added, as has a roof structure. Though the exterior of the diner, minus the roof, is still visible, it is difficult to see from the road because of the railing of the add-on porch.

The interior is remarkably in-tact. Any surface that can be has been covered over with years and years worth of trucking company stickers and decals. The booths are replacements, but the stools, and most everything else is original.

A sampling of the trucking logos. Some go back quite a ways.

And would you look at that- it still has its original Mountain View tag. #234. For reference, the Mineola Diner in New York is #236

Talk about great neon! And the perfect moderne facade. The front is now boarded over from the signage down, but these pics, which were took c.2001 still show that great rounded front window and flanking doors. By this point, it had lost the majority of its virtolite, exposing the brick underneath.

Back in 2005, the pre-GPS days, with no Worcester city map and a set of incorrect mapquest directions, we tried to tackle the city. We did manage to find some of them, but there was a lot of guesswork, wrong turns and frustration. This one was closed for meals at the time, as were most of the diners we tracked down.

More from August 2005. The Miss Worcester Diner, looking pretty down on her heels. She re-opened a little bit after these were taken, and from what I can tell, is doing pretty well these days.