Penny's Diner

So our original plan today for Breakfast in was to eat at a Pittsburgh "classic" called Tom's Diner. Located on the Southside, in an awesome old building with high ceilings and lots of city diner charm. Much to our surprise, we arrived only to find the name had been changed to "Penny's Diner". Luckily the new ownership still serves breakfast, so enter we did.

Seems Penny is actually Tom's daughter, and when Dad Tom retired, Daughter Penny made the place her own. According to the menu, Penny already owns 2 diners in the area (in WV & Southwest PA) so the diner business really runs in the family.

I love the decor - particularly the awesome old red vinyl booths. There's also outdoor seating for nice weather like we had today, and there were plenty of waitresses and other help running around like crazy. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to understand the method to the madness and ended up having quite a bizarre experience.

When we first walked in, the hostess, a younger girl, offered to seat us and was leading us to one of several open booths when suddenly, the older woman in charge diverted us to a table in the corner, next to some sort of doorway the staff would rush in and out of. Super strange, not sure if we had a funny look on our face or what, but I would have considered this table to be the last place you would want to seat folks - like only if the rest of the place was completely full and rather than send customers away, consider it the "last" seat in the house. Anyway, it wasn't awesome.

Our waitress, bless her heart, was one of the people always rushing, always forgetting something, always apologizing - what I consider "working hard, but not smart".

As for the food, it was just okay. The menu definitely made it sound much better than it actually arrived. I chose the "Eggs-in-a-basket" which was toast with eggs fried in the middle with bacon and cheese sauce for potatoes. (I think the cheese sauce might double as nacho sauce at lunchtime, but I can't confirm.) And husband ordered the "Farmer's Omelette Special" with sausage, ham, bacon & 2 pancakes, toast and potatoes. (The pancakes arrived halfway through the meal, and the omelet had a really odd taste to it - maybe some apple smoked sausage?)

So all in all, it was a really bizarre experience, that I don't think I can recommend. Maybe it's just that awkward transition time between owners??

The Empty Booth