No matter how many fine dining option you may have in your area , there ’s something about sitting down in a dining car that ca n’t be matched . Their carte are model of American comfort intellectual nourishment , from meatloaf to patty melt . The coffee cups are bottomless . There ’s usually a toothpick dispensary at the cash register .
Many buffet car across the country have one additional identifying trait : They ’re mold like a gear car , a satiny and narrow compartment that looks like it go on a set of tracks . When and why did this manner choice become synonymous with diners ?
In a piece forAtlas Obscura , Anne Ewbank throw off some luminance on the practice session . The early twentieth C ensure a rise in entrepreneurs who were concerned in meeting the demand for casual dining establishments for people hurrying to or from work . Their ambitions had evolved from thelunch wagonsof the belated 1800s , which provided protection from weather by putting up sunshade or letting people sit inside on stools .
metropolis ordinances , however , made such operations a little tricky : Many intellectual nourishment wagons needed to be lasting fastness so as to annul the narrow operating hours mandated by communities . Rather than hire a contractor or hire an survive commercial space , people opted to order preassemble , mobile carts that could be transport to their emplacement by rail or towed by truck . These dining cars became know as “ diners . ”
Like the bulge - up locations of today , the diners could seem well-nigh overnight . Most were deliver in one man ; others were modular , requiring minimal assembly , and could bid a greater miscellanea of way and seating room capacities . For small business possessor , their affordability and restroom made it potential to run into out on their own . Some maker even offer torepair fixturesby throw the diner ship back to the factory .
The look became so intertwined with fast - dining that some owner recycled honest-to-god train cars to capture the esthetic . Today , even dining compartment make from scratch often mimic the narrow , elongate shape so familiar to patrons — a design now borne out of option rather than necessity . It ’s a curious fleck of history , and one Charles Frederick Worth pondering the next time you grab a toothpick .
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