It doesn't walk like a duck, but...
I've been waiting for someone to mention the Papermoon Diner on 29th Street, but unless I missed it, nobody has yet.
It fits all the criteria listed in previous posts: It's open 24 hours a day, it has a counter, it serves breakfast all day.
It even calls itself a diner (unlike Cafe Hon), which has to count for something.
I have a certain fondness for it for two reasons. ...
Once my daughter came in at 2 a.m. from a party, I woke up, and somehow she talked me into going to the Papermoon for a lark. People who know me know that it's probably the only time I've ever seen 2 a.m., so it was quite a departure for me.
And then once I had something to do early on a nice summer morning, and when I got out of bed the power was out. (As my husband says, with BGE it's like living in a Third World country -- but that's another story.) Anyway, we ended up having breakfast at 5:30 a.m. there.
But in spite of all that, Papermoon just doesn't seem like a diner to me. Maybe I can't define what a diner is, but one thing I know a diner isn't: funky. Just take a look at Papermoon's Web site.
But maybe I'll put it on my list anyway.
(Mauricio Rubio/Sun photographer)
Comments
a diner w/ 80% sysco par cooked/flash frozen menu. only caveat, management has bizarre andy warhol/barbie masochism artistic approach.
Posted by: curious4food | January 25, 2008 11:47 AM
Diners are only funky in an unintentional way. See: Double T in Ellicott City.
Papermoon is ... what? An all-night eatery? A guaranteed stomachache?
Posted by: Mary | January 25, 2008 12:15 PM
Just because a place calls itself a diner doesn't mean it is one.
It's kind of like saying a place is in "Federal Hill". Just because they say they're in Federal Hill, doesn't mean they are. it amazes me how far south the Federal Hill boundary lines move year after year.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 25, 2008 12:42 PM
I love Papermoon, and have gone there often for breakfast, lunch and dinner with the family. It's an upscale diner ... in a good way.
Plato's down in CP is a very traditional diner with Greek food.
Both places are where you're most likely to find the local population after the bars close.
Posted by: Shoshana | January 25, 2008 1:09 PM
I always get lost in Remington, which I why I never try and find the PaperMoon at two in the morning.
Posted by: Robert from Cross Keys | January 25, 2008 1:15 PM
The Penn restaurant on Pratt Street near UMD Medical center is one of the most authentic Greek diner in all of Baltimore. Great breakfast, and good Gyros too!
Big hangout for the UMD hospital crowd.
Posted by: Kirk | January 25, 2008 2:32 PM
Okay, I feel that I'm missing something. Why are so many diners around here Greek? Can someone explain?
Posted by: Darlene | January 25, 2008 5:14 PM
It's a little far afield, and I haven't been there in a while, but the Tastee Diner in Bethesda always was a genuine, 24-hour diner by food and appearances. Its website also says it has locations in Silver Spring and Laurel.
Posted by: hungry eyes | January 25, 2008 8:04 PM
I think the reason why Papermoon didn't make the cut is because it doesn't meet the requirements that were discussed over on the diner thread. Maybe the only one it meets is the one about being open late, I suppose. Papermoon suffers from spotty service, probably due to the strange way that everyone is your server, as described in the menu. This leads to diffusion of responsibility issues - and here my mom thought I would never get any mileage out of my sociology degree!
Posted by: Bob W. | January 26, 2008 11:39 AM
A diner isn't funky...? I think this questionable assertion arises from the multiple meanings of funky: good funky (off-beat, characterful) and bad funky (dirty, dilapidated). It may be that a true diner can't be too idiosyncratic -- for then it would not be that standard issue thing, a "diner" -- but they are so frequently filthy that one might almost say that if it isn't funky it can't be a diner.
Posted by: whoever | January 26, 2008 1:42 PM
Papermoon is a post-modern ironic diner.
Posted by: Owl Meat Jerky | January 26, 2008 3:41 PM
In the 1960s the most popular television program in Greece was called γευματίζων. It was about a poor Greek family who moved to America and eventually became wealthy after opening a number of successful diners. Perhaps that has something to do with it?
Posted by: Owl Meat Jerky | January 26, 2008 5:12 PM
Owl Meat Jerky, you never cease to amaze! A veritable font of information!
Posted by: Darlene | January 27, 2008 10:50 AM
Owl Meat Jerky, you never cease to amaze! A veritable font of information!
And some of it is probably true! :-)
Posted by: Hal Laurent | January 27, 2008 9:01 PM
As someone who's been going to Papermoon for the last 15 years (when it was a one room joint where we could smoke ciggs and drink coffee and be uberhip 15yr olds)....
The food's gone down. I went a few sunday's ago with my family and while it was "fine" it just doesn't have the same great taste as it used to!
Posted by: Meg | January 28, 2008 2:42 PM
Meg-
Perhaps the food hasn't changed, perhaps your tastes have improved.
Posted by: Jay C. | January 29, 2008 4:19 AM