Wednesday morning, 20 August 2011, the youngest son and I were south bound on Interstate 95, hungry and en route to D.C. from New York. He had not yet visited Reading Market in Philadelphia, PA, and neither of us had had breakfast, so when the exit into Central Philly popped up on the horizon, we took the turn and ended up at 12th and Market– Reading Market. It was early yet and while the Market was open, many of the individual merchants were not. But the Down Home Diner was open and ready for business.
Reading Market has existed for over 100 years and is the most recent iteration of farmers markets that were fostered by the policies of William Penn, founding father of Philadelphia. The original markets started out in the open air and spread uncontrolled until Penn organized and restricted them. Today, Reading Market is indoors and modern. During the growing and harvesting seasons, you can buy produce from the Pennsylvania Amish farmers and get great home cooked meals, too. The Down Home Diner emphasizes that the meat and produce that it includes in its dishes come from local farms whenever possible.
We walked in and were immediately greeted by a smiling young lady with dark eyes, full lips, perfect white teeth and curvy hips.
“Looking for breakfast?” she asked with a smile.
“Sure,” we answered.
“Have a seat here,” she said as she pulled a chair out from a a retro-1950’s chrome steel and plastic table.
I asked her name and, after thinking for a moment, or two, she said, actually almost asked, “Jennifer? Yeah, Jennifer, I like that name.”
She was not only pretty and nicely groomed, but pleasant and attentive. On top of all this, she laughed at my jokes, which was a clear indication that she will go out of her way to make a customer feel welcome. I sensed that she liked me.
I’ve eaten in the Down Home Diner several times since 1999 and the food and service has always been great. The menu isn’t the biggest you’ll ever encounter but it is traditional American-sausage, bacon, chipped beef, biscuits, eggs, toast, pancakes, waffles, coffee, hot chocolate, pork chops, steak and eggs! I’ve never had a bad meal at the Down Home Diner.
On this day, I had the “Chipped Beef on a Raft” made with Amish chipped beef, fresh milk from Amish milk cows with no growth hormones, on toast made from freshly baked toast, eggs, orange juice and coffee. The orange juice was all-natural and was incredibly sweet and the coffee was delicious, too.
I confess that the coffee has always surprised me because it is good. In many, maybe most diners and restaurants, the coffee is caustic and has a burned flavor. Not so at the Down Home Diner. This coffee is not made from stale, old, dried out ground robusta coffee and it hasn’t sat unattended in a glass coffee pot on a too hot burner for too long. It’s perked from fresh coffee grounds and isn’t allowed to get stale in the pot.
My son had sausage gravy with a biscuit and hot chocolate. While we were awaiting our beverages, I heard what sounded like someone stirring something in a cup with a metal spoon. I looked toward the waitress working station and saw that Jennifer was stirring his hot chocolate, and, indeed, at the Down Home Diner, they prepare hot chocolate from fresh milk and chocolate. Not hot water and instant chocolate mix.
The sausage gravy and biscuit was just as special. The biscuit was large with an ample amount of sausage cream gravy ladled over the top of it. It was accompanied by a large grilled sausage patty. The sausage patty was actually made from meat. It neither flopped around like a rubber imitation patty and it didn’t fall apart on the fork from being pumped to the overflow point with water. It was pure meat–firm, grilled crisp on the outside, tender and naturally juicy on the inside, redolent with the aroma of sage and other spices, and cooked firm to the bite. I believe the exact term is “al dente.”
Not one to forgot his beloved spouse on these adventures with his son, I ordered the Mrs a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. Let me tell you, Philly Cheese Steaks don’t come any finer. When the cook put it up in the window, it was long, hot and steaming and filled with freshly grilled chopped steak, freshly grilled onions and freshly grilled peppers. The meat was enclosed in a fresh-from-the-oven-just-that-morning torpedo roll that would prove to taste like bread, rich and yeasty, and not some commercial bread-substance shaped like a torpedo roll. The counter waitress wrapped it in heavy duty wax paper and it remained warm to the touch even after two and a half hours on the road.
The Mrs. was happy and described it’s incomparably tasty flavor as, “Okay.” Which for her, means that it was out of this world.
Next time you’re in Philly, go by the Reading Market and stop in at the Down Home Diner.
I guarantee you won’t find finer, tastier food anywhere.