Diners and the History of Blue-Plate Specials

A friend recently went up to Detroit and mentioned that he stopped at a quaint little restaurant that had a "blue plate special." I asked him if he was at a diner. We don't have many diners in the Midwest; most are on the East Coast, where I grew up. Before "fast food" became prevalent in our lives, diners were the place to eat cheap.

Traditional diners were similar to trailers. They were designed after railroad dining cars and some of them actually were made from these cars. Each diner was a long, narrow building usually prefabricated from metal. Stools lined up against the counter. Small booths covered in red vinyl adorned the walls. Waitresses, dressed in stiff uniforms with either hair nets or hats, walked around with coffee pots that had been cooking for quite some time on the burners.

Diners were a cheap place to eat. One of the best bargains was the "blue plate special." This strictly American tradition began in the 1920s and went strong into the 1950s. The plates were made of blue melamine that were divided in three places - one for the meat and two for the vegetables. The blue plate special changed on a daily basis and you could not substitute anything on the plate.

A normal blue plate special was meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy and two vegetables, usually corn and green beans. It was nearly always a meat dish and vegetables. Potatoes were normally one of the vegetables as people didn't use rice a lot back then. My favorite blue plate special was the turkey that covered the stuffing and had corn and cranberry sauce as sides. I liked the blue plate special because I really liked the stuffing, which was lumpy but good, and, like most kids, didn't have to worry about the horror of one of the foods accidentally touching one of the other foods.

I can remember eating at the diners very clearly, even though it was a long time ago. I always wanted to sit at the counter, but we had to sit in the booths. Each of the booths was equipped with a personal jukebox. You put a quarter in and could listen to your favorite songs.