It’s the people who make the space at the end of the day. The regular patrons are usually senior citizens, mostly old ladies, who come with their nurses, their children and grandchildren, they’re old friends. Or sometimes they just come by themselves. They live in the area, it’s nice, and close, and it’s comfortable. On the other end of the spectrum of people who regularly come here are young families. Families who have just started out and families who are looking to make their own family traditions and customs. I’ve been coming to this diner since I was three years old. Some of my oldest memories are of here, finding out that I do not like pickles. It’s a place where families grow and create traditions. There are people who come in once, who come in as a one-time only thing and while that, but it doesn’t build the place up like the people who stay here for years do.

It is nice finding that place where you can just go and relax. -Moises Arias

“We randomly chose this place after reading mixed reviews, its not touristy and a really laid back place for the locals around the UWS neighborhood.” -Yo L.

“After 4 or 5 visits, I’d say this is my favorite diner in the area.  It’s not open late, and its menu isn’t as expansive as true diner menus, but its sandwiches are the best around, its fries are consistently perfect, its background music is amusingly baroque, the service is always friendly, and to boot, the prices are significantly lower than at nearby diners.” -Daniel B.

“Fresh squeezed orange juice, delicious omelette and split pea soup is a perfect start for a day. Old style diner with pleasant people serving you is obviously an added flavor to the experience.”- Dushyanth S.

“This place is everything that makes the upperwest liveable. The food is fresh, service is friendly and the atmosphere is evocative of pre-chain era that is now sadly endangered.”-Susan W.

yelp reviews

I’ll be honest, food is what I think about least when I come here. I don’t have a personal favorite. Sometimes I want something healthy, so I’ll get a garden burger. Sometimes I want something good so I’ll get a pastrami on rye. If it’s on the soups of the day, I’ll get a split pea. My brothers and my dad have their favorites. My dad likes a good cheeseburger and and one of my brothers will always copy him while the other one gets cup of chicken noodle and some buffalo chicken wings (which I will try to swipe from him while he isn’t looking). But it doesn’t quite matter. It all tastes good in a place like this.

The open kitchen, which remains a staple of diner design, served as an immediate display of cleanliness and a method of appeasing attendees that despite its old nickname, “greasy spoon,” the diner itself wasn’t cheap.

-Rob Bastanmehr

The owning family is the core. The store is owned by a first generation Greek family. The wife is friendly behind the cash register The son is always there, and artist who is a mirror image of his father. His father is Dmitri, a sweet old man, one of the most recognizable things about the place. He has wrinkles and white curly hair with gray swirls and a neat-ish mustache. He is always smiling, always cheerful, always ready with a strong hand shake and a joke or two. Dmitri is the thing that makes this diner a place people want to make a tradition out of. He’s always ready to tease and joke around with the children, handing out lollipops giving out “firm handshakes” and “stealing” children’s  fries.

Truth be told: I don’t know anyone’s name other than the owner. I’ve known them for too long and at this point I am simply too afraid to ask. and I’m not really sure if they know my name. But it doesn’t really matter, I could pick these people out of Times Square during the the Ball Drop and they always recognize me on the street.Their presence at the diner give it it’s warm meaning and feeling. The wait staff are friendly and helpful. There are two Latino brothers who work there who my mother and father always chat with in Spanish, which is one of the few places I really feel at ease with my own Spanish speaking. The other waiter are young girls who truly fit the aesthetic of a friendly feminine face at a diner, swinging by with more water or just to check up to make everything is alright. They make you feel comfortable and not stressed out. They make sure you really feel good on your day out to lunch, with no hassle to them and no hassle to you. No matter how busy it gets, everyone always remains pleasant and I honestly feel a connection.

I was born in New York City and I lived here until I was six years old and that has never felt like a long time for me. But there are some things here that have stuck and makes me feel like its been ages. These are memories that feel like they last a lot longer than they have actually existed. I’ve been coming to this restaurant with my family since as long as I can remember, it’s always been here. I remember having a special day out, getting a hamburger with my dad and my aunt. Sometimes my mother would take me after kindergarten for mother-daughter time. I still remember wanting to use sit at the counter and my dad dragging me to a more “family friendly” seating areas by the booths. I always wanted pancakes and so I could use the metal syrup servers, even though I couldn’t finish them all on my own. I still remember my experience finding out that I don’t like pickles because I found them sour and gross. I still remember being four years old and getting dum dum lollipops of several new and bizarre flavors like root beer and cotton candy at the end of each visit from my Uncle Dimitri.

I moved back to New York when I was 14 and it did not feel any different.

There is Diner Culture in United States. It’s a feature of the the American Dream, along with white picket fences and green lawns and a dog and kids. It’s an aesthetic that fits the warm and fun feeling of the classic American road trip, found in photography blogs and Food Network programs. They have a deep cultural significance that runs deep in the veins of post-war America and there is a certain idea that people have on what a diner is supposed to be.

During the Depression, large complex diners were simply too expensive to build, so a new business of repairing and modifying existing diners blossomed. Small diners like Kullman’s “minis” and the Hickey/Gemm “dining carts” appeared everywhere. These eight-to-ten-seat dining carts were often trailered or placed on flatbed trucks and carted daily to specified sites, just as Walter Scott did with his lunch wagon decades before. Similarly, drive-in restaurants survived the Depression because of their affordable menus, convenient locations and wholesome atmosphere. New drive-ins were simple and boxy, but people came for good cheap food and fun.

-Don Sawyer

There is something familiar that is found in every diner: the high pitched ding of the bell when you enter, the smell of breakfast foods and sandwiches in the air, big menu with more items than you can care to look through. Diners are a reliable source of comfort food and a comfortable place where time is frozen, as if it is still the 1950s, without all of the outside problems. Every individual diner will have something that makes it special, all have claims of the best burger or milkshake.  And of course everyone believes that their diner is the best one. There is a certain loyalty you build from going to the same diner year after year. Some people may have the same IHOP or Denny’s they go to, but that isn’t the same as your own local and personal Mom & Pop diner.

For 36 years. For 36 years, the diner Pier 72 has been on the corner of 72^nd street and West End Avenue. Owned and Run by the same family for 36 years. With large windows that give an easy looking outside and in, with charismatic flower boxes with seasonal plants and flowers, it is a scenic and comfortable spot that doesn’t attract many tourists. The food is good, the location is nice, but the best thing by far is the company and the connection you will find as a regular patron of this diner.