The Golden Apple

The Golden Apple is an establishment in which the customers help shape and contribute to the feel of the restaurant. It is open 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Three men own the restaurant, and at any time of the day or night, one of the owners is there. The customers vary throughout the day and night, and this unique makeup of characters is special to the Golden Apple. At any given hour, the clientele sitting at the counter or in the booths set the atmosphere in the diner. At times it can be quiet, but as the day turns to night, it can be hectic. Some of the “regular” customers visit two or three times in a given day. They may sit for hours, sometimes talking to others, sometimes just saying hi. Drunks, cab drivers, cops, elderly people, young people, and even families with children eat at the Golden Apple.

Throughout the day, the “regular” customers mainly sit alone at the counter, the tables, or in the booths in the Golden Apple. These “regulars” will sometimes just drink coffee with not much talking going on in the diner. They want to wake up and tend to linger in their seats, and at times there can be an uncomfortable silence. As the day turns to early afternoon the local workers come in, eat quickly, and leave. In the early evening, the families come in, as well as some of the “regulars” return. If it is a nice day, tables are put outside for their dining pleasure. The young children know the menu, almost always ordering the Mickey Mouse pancakes. As the evening turns to late night and into the early morning hours, the cab drivers, cops, and the drunks come in. During these times, the diner becomes a home to one big party. The place can be crazy, but everyone is always very friendly.

This broadcast is describing what my Grandparents talked about as the “typical” diner. Waitresses have worked there for years, and the customers become family. My Grandparents just to eat at a local restaurant in San Francisco; here they were one of the “regulars”. They may not have eaten there every day, or more than one time in a day, but they were known by the waiters and waitresses. They mainly ate lunch there, and so they were eating with their friends who were also retired. This diner was not open 24 hours a day, so it was not like the Golden Apple. It was owned by a family, and was not part of a chain of restaurants.

Today, this type of a diner is hard to find. Chains like Applebee’s or Chevy’s are now the local establishments. When you go to these restaurants, you are not known by name. You sometimes have to wait to be seated, and once seated your waiter or waitress takes your drink order and then your food order. You do not talk to the other customers, and the “type” of customer does not dictate the feel of the restaurant during a certain time of the day. These restaurants are not open 24 hours a day; they have set times and set holidays when they are open. At times they can become noisy, especially when there is a group at the bar talking and laughing. But no matter what is happening at the bar, the work in the restaurant goes on. There may be crying babies, yelling kids, elderly people taking loud, but I have never seen these restaurant chains become hectic like the Golden Apple can become.