The American Diner

By: Joana

Written for Western Culture & Civilization Class

Sitting in a diner with its chrome counter-top and cherry pie is definitely a quintessential American experience. A diner is a small, casual, traditional restaurant that has become one of America’s cultural icons. Most diners in America have the same building design. They are usually small and narrow. Most of them also have an exterior layer of stainless steel sidings. This is because in the old days, diners are used to be inside rail cars or trucks. Diners first emerged around 1950s in America, in order to serve workers who got home late and could not find restaurants that were still open until that hour. Since then this type of restaurants had become viral. A diner can be found literally anywhere across the country and it usually opens 24 hours full. Diners serve traditional American staple food considered as comfort food like hamburgers, mac and cheese, fries, pancake, and many other mostly grilled and fried cuisines. Coffee and hand-blended milkshake or pies are also served in almost all diners in America. Diners in each area usually have its own unique, regional cuisines. Biscuits and gravy, for example, are popular in the Southerns, while fried clams and shrimps are more popular in the Northeasts. Diner’s food always comes in generous portion with cheap prices. This is why diners are very popular among Americans, even until today. What is interesting and going to be the focus of this paper is the culture of the Americans when eating out in dinners. I will analyze how their behaviors reflect the underlying western way of thinking, and contrast it to what I can find in my own culture, which is Indonesian’s culture.

Firstly, American diners are the melting pot of the diverse American culture. People from all ways of life, all kinds of backgrounds love eating in diners. People from all races, cultures, and social economic backgrounds can sit together in peace when eating in diners. Richard Gutman, the author of American Diner Then and Now, stated that a friend of his once ate in a diner in Pennsylvania. He sat between two men, one is a chief policeman and one is an ordinary man. The policeman looked over and said “Didn’t I arrest you last year?” and the other man answered, “Yes, you did. Now, pass the ketchup—.” This short story tells us a lot about how Americans see each others as equal despite all their differences, and how democratic ideology as America’s main ideology is reflected perfectly from the way they interact with each other in the diners. In contrast with in my country, Indonesia where there is no such type of restaurant that sells Indonesian food that everyone in the country love. In Indonesia, restaurants are divided based on the origin of the food, for instances like Chinese, Padang, or Indonesian Restaurant that interestingly usually only sell Javanese food. Although there isn’t strict rules that Chinese restaurants is for Chinese, Padang restaurant is for Padangese, but it’s rare to see any restaurant becoming a melting pot for all people from any backgrounds eating together in Indonesia, especially for people from different economic backgrounds. Usually the poors and riches go to different types of restaurants; the poors go to warung or cheap kedai, while the riches prefer café or fancy restaurant. From this I can see how Indonesian people are still not as democratic as the Americans. They still tend to flock together with birds with the same feathers and do not have the habit to interact with people with different background as casually as the Americans in their diners.

Secondly, is about the way people order and pay their food in diners. In America, most restaurants, including diners, have super fast turning table culture. It means that people have to do everything fast, so that other customers can get in and use the table. The faster diners can turn the tables, the more money they can make, that’s the idea—time is money. People have to queue outside to get tables. This makes people tend to eat fast and not waste time so they won’t make other customers suffer outside. Customers also do not like to wait too long for their order. There is even this unwritten policy that if it takes more than 30 minutes for the food to come, the diner will give it for free. It reflects how Americans value time a lot. They are very punctual and fast, because in their mindset time equals to money. On the other hand, in Indonesia people love to spend a lot of time when eating in restaurants. They eat slowly and talk a lot. They do not value time so much as the Americans. If a customer looks like he has finished his meal, without him having to ask for the bill, a waiter will immediately come to give it, showing Americans’ directness in communicating. In Indonesia, the waiter will never give the bill until the customers ask for it. It reflects their indirectness. In paying the bill, Americans are obliged to give tip at least 20% of the bill to the waiter. They must do it because tip is the main income of waiters there. They do not get regular salary. This way, each waiter will earn money equals to the number of customers he services. Meaning they value’s individual’s effort. Unlike in Indonesia where all waiters get the same salary although one waiter may works harder than another. This highlights how Americans value individuality while Indonesians value communal relationship more.

In conclusion, from the way people eat in restaurants, we can see the different ways of thinking between Americans and Indonesians. Americans tend to be more democratic, punctual, direct, and individual; while, Indonesians tend to be less democratic, leisurely, polite and indirect, and value communal relationship more. There is no way to prove which culture is better than the other, so let us just cherish and respect all the differences that exist between both cultures.

References

Bastanmehr, R. (2015, August 09). Greasy, Hungry, Powerful: What the American Diner Says About America. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3bjavy/what-the-american-diner-says-about-america-253

Diner. (2020, June 10). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diner

Why the diner is the ultimate symbol of America. (2011, November 29). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15792186