Make my exhibit over-easy, please: Morris Museum to serve breakfast at diner display, Nov. 19

Connie Read and Gerri Horn of the Morris Museum at diner exhibit. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Connie Read and Gerri Horn of the Morris Museum at diner exhibit. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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The Bendix Diner, by Mark Oberndorff, on display at the Morris Museum.
The Bendix Diner, by Mark Oberndorff, on display at the Morris Museum.

By Kevin Coughlin

New Jersey has been called the diner capital of the world. And for one morning, at least, the Morris Museum will be the epicenter of this stainless steel-and-neon culture.

Museum trustees will don aprons and hats and serve breakfast to patrons this Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, from 9 am to 11 am, to celebrate its exhibit Icons of American Culture: History of New Jersey Diners.

“This is a low-cost event to tell people how much fun they can have at the Morris Museum,” said Chairwoman Gerri Horn, who will be among the servers.

For $10 ($7 for children and seniors), visitors can chow down on eggs, pancakes and home fries, against a backdrop of images and memorabilia from some of the Garden State’s most iconic and beloved diners.

Connie Read and Gerri Horn of the Morris Museum at diner exhibit. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Connie Read and Gerri Horn of the Morris Museum at diner exhibit. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

The food is courtesy of the Florham Park Diner, the Nautilus Diner of Madison, and the Prestige Diner of New Providence.

Connie Read, chief financial officer for the museum in Morris Township, discovered diners when she moved from Pittsburgh to Jersey in her 20s.

“Diners were new. Bagels, Chinese restaurants…New Jersey had it all,” Read said.

‘THE ULTIMATE EGALITARIAN EXPERIENCE’

The state has somewhere between 350 and 600 diners, estimates Clifton author Michael Gabriele, whose book The History of Diners in New Jersey inspired the exhibit that runs through December 2016 at the museum.

Michael Gabriele, author of 'The History of Diners in New Jersey,' will be slinging hash and anecdotes at the Morris Museum. Photo courtesy of the author.
Michael Gabriele, author of ‘The History of Diners in New Jersey,’ will be slinging hash and anecdotes at the Morris Museum. Photo courtesy of the author.

Precisely how many depends on how you define “diner.”  Gabriele is okay counting anything that a restaurateur labels as such; purists insist on the shiny pre-fab constructions that loom so large in the lives of many Garden Staters.

Growing up in Nutley, Gabriele and his pals often ducked into the Tick Tock Diner at 1 am on Saturdays or Sundays.

“We were hungry. But we also wanted to see who else would be there: Hippies, politicians, truck drivers. The diner was the ultimate egalitarian experience for people,” he said.

Diners evolved from horse-drawn lunch wagons, which appeared in Providence, R.I., in the 1870s, according to the author.

Sensing a business opportunity, Bayonne tavern operator Jerry O’Mahoney sold his first lunch wagon in July 1912, three months after the Titanic sank.

Over the next few decades, New Jersey emerged as a manufacturing hub for modular diners. Coarse, greasy-spoon, men-only joints gave way to Naugahyde-upholstered,  terrazzo-floored eateries that welcomed ladies and families.

Jersey embraced diners, Gabriele asserts, because it’s the most densely populated state in America. And — as incredible as this sounds nowadays–we once had the nation’s best infrastructure.

“At the turn of the [20th] century, we had the best highways, the best bridges, the best tunnels,” he said.

Greek immigrants found their American Dream running early diners; other groups have had success in recent times.

Largely a northeastern phenomenon, diners weathered the onslaught of McDonald’s and other fast-food chains in the 1960s, and subsequent health food trends.

“I’m big on broccoli-and-spinach omelettes,” said Colleen MacKenzie, a 25-year-old special events coordinator at the museum. She was a frequent patron of the Towne Restaurant in Clinton during her childhood. “I love diner food. It’s so good.”

'I love diners,' says Colleen MacKenzie of the Morris Museum, at its diner exhibit. Photo by Kevin Coughlin.
‘I love diners,’ says Colleen MacKenzie of the Morris Museum, at its diner exhibit. Photo by Kevin Coughlin.

Gabriele, who will be slinging hash browns and anecdotes at the museum breakfast, thinks diners are trend-proof, at least in these parts.

“They have a certain Jersey charm about them. They’re in our DNA, they’re in our bones.”

And in these politically contentious times, there is something safe and comforting about a diner.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you look like,” Gabriele said. “You walk in, you get a seat, a smile and a good cup of coffee.”

The Morris Museum is at 6 Normandy Heights Road (at the corner of Columbia Turnpike) in Morris Township. A breakfast ticket entitles you to visit all the museum’s exhibits. The Museum asks that you call ahead at (973) 971-3700–so it can plan on how much food to order.

 

 

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