Johnny's Diner

Formerly known as Pip's Diner, Johnny's Diner in the West End neighborhood of Pittsburgh is where we headed for Saturday breakfast today. We drive by often when taking the back way home from Robinson, when avoiding tunnel traffic on the Parkway West. But enough about that - let's talk about BREAKFAST!

I'm pretty sure we saw this place featured on TV several years ago as part of a documentary on American diners. It is a very unique building - it seems to have been built from an old-time Street Car! With the counter down the middle where the center aisle once was, the rounded roof, and the big grill up against one side and stools on the other. It's really pretty cool. All of this is lost on the outside, however, as it has been built on to include a back room and additional booth seating areas. These "new" booths were already occupied, so rather than waiting, we decided to sit right at the counter, allowing us the full diner experience.

The menu here is exactly what you would expect from a small diner - most everything fried up right on the same grill. Where we sat we had full and complete view of our entire meal, step-by-step as it was being prepared. Since the kitchen area is so small, our waitress was also one of the 2 cooks. So our breakfast was brought to us piece-meal...Each item was served as it finished cooking.  (I guess that's one way to ensure nothing gets cold!)

When I saw "cream of wheat" on the menu, I couldn't resist (hey, at least it wasn't grits.) It was the first thing done, followed by husband's 2 small pancakes (on the side). After that was finished, husband's main course of cheese omelet with ham, potatoes & Italian toast was served up. Finally, after having been forgotten and made a little extra-crispy, my lone waffle was brought over.

Being so close to the action, I could feel the Stress of a busy breakfast rush on the two cooks, especially our waitress. There were several "to-go" order they were filling, along with all the regular diners - almost more than the poor little grill could handle. So all in all, it was an interesting way to have breakfast served in a neat little building. It really did feel like we were right there in the kitchen, but at the same time you could really feel the essence of this old street car.