OP: Lost Diners and Roadside Restaurants of New England and New York

Anderson & Sons’ Publishing Co., 2001. Paperback. Very Good Plus. Signed first printing.

Heavily illustrated with period photographs, menus, postcards, and even matchbook covers, Lost Diners… (2001) is a nostalgic jaunt across the American Northeast’s vanishing eateries. 

Streamliners repurposed as those quintessential silver roadside diners. Remote clapboard fruit stands serving hotdogs and sodas. An ice cream stand built with castle-like towers resembling gargantuan ice cream cartons. These and their quirky architectural brethren hearken back to a different, maybe simpler, time.

Author and all around roadfood enthusiast Will Anderson profiles these and over a hundred other off-beat, old-time restaurants and cafes—now all long gone—whose strongest assets were reliability and understated comfort. Smart and nicely researched writing, which tugs at the heart, making you wonder if we ought to bring back this style of cooking and dining.

Ours is an unused, signed first printing with modest shelfwear. Issued only in paperback.