Diners Restaurant Traditional Modern Open Time Eating Casual

Traditionally, a "diner" was a special kind of "prefabricated" (built with standard sizes; not customized) restaurant building. These were long, narrow buildings that could be moved down the road or pulled by trains, and they made it easy for restaurants to be opened very quickly. Many of the diners had a "stainless steel" (made from a shiny, silver-colored metal) "exterior" (outside part) and a lot of stainless steel "accents" (decorations; accessories) on the "interior" (inside part), too.

Today, any restaurant that looks similar to a traditional diner and serves diner-style food might be called a diner, even if it isn't "housed" (located) in a prefabricated restaurant building. Modern diners "tend to be" (are usually) larger and have more "seating" (the number of seats for customers) than more traditional diners.

Traditionally diners were open 24 hours a day, at a time when few other "establishments" (businesses) were open all night long. This made them popular "gathering places" (places for people to meet and spend time together) late at night and early in the morning. "Present-day" (modern) diners might also be open 24-hours, but is no longer as common as it once was.

Traditional and modern diners tend to serve the same simple kinds of food: hamburgers, sandwiches, French fries, pancakes, and eggs. It is also very common for diners to serve pie, ice cream, and coffee.

Many modern diners are decorated so that they look like diners from the 1950s. The waitresses might wear "poodle skirts" (very large, full skirts that were popular in the middle of the century), the jukebox might play music from that time period, and any artwork hanging on the walls might "date back to" (come from a certain period in history) the "mid-century" (around the 1950s).