Palace Diner

we're getting artsy up in here.

(Chris)

I honestly didn't have the highest hopes for this place when I saw the name of the restaurant. Something about naming a diner "Palace" seems pretentious, but I made sure to drop any prejudices before I walked through their front door. I was surprised when I saw the inside, it had that legitimate "diner" feel to it.

The booths were worn in and comfortable, the bar had a few seniors finishing their home fries and reading the days paper, and there were plenty of families enjoying their pre-Thanksgiving breakfast. Now that I think of it, maybe it was the morning of Thanksgiving that brought these people out. The lure of having one meal that didn't require cooking or cleaning dishes might have made this diner seem more popular than it really is.

The coffee came out quickly and it was delicious. I ordered their "Southern Sausage," which (as you might have guessed) is biscuits and gravy. The dish came with your standard two biscuits covered in a sausage gravy, home fries on the side, and two sausage links (Palace does the duty of cutting your sausage for you in this dish). I'm used to having eggs with my southern sausage, so I put in the side order for two over medium. I could have left off the order of eggs. To Palace Diner, eggs "over medium" really means, "barely cook them and make sure that the white are still runny." When over medium comes out like over easy, it makes me wonder if "well done" eggs are still runny or if they come out like white and yellow hockey pucks. The home fries were acceptable. All the potato was cooked through and there were definitely some good crispy bits to nibble through. The sausage gravy and biscuits were pretty good, especially the biscuits. The biscuits were nice and delicate even under the pile of gravy, they were buttery, and they did a great job mopping up any extra gravy left behind. On our way out of the diner we saw a couple picking up no fewer than five pies and cakes for Thanksgiving dinner later that night. All the deserts looked amazing. They must be doing something right at Palace that I didn't pick up on; I'll be sure to go back and get an omelette next time before I completely label them as mediocre.

(Chi)

As with every place this time of year, pumpkin was in the air at the Palace Diner. I decidedly to indulge by having some pumpkin coffee. It was the most fragrant and full-bodied pumpkin coffee I've had and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing was that the waitress brought me another full cup when I was just a few sips into my first one, so my entire second cup just sat on the table getting cold the entire meal. Wasted.

I ordered two eggs medium that came with hashbrowns, a juice (orange), and a short stack of French toast to round it off. As you can probably tell from the pictures, this portions were not as overwhelming as I had expected them to do from my experience with diners. In the overall sense of things, this is probably a good thing for mankind. 

My eggs had the opposite problem that most places do; my eggs were runny. When they were warm, it tasted okay. Once they cooled, it got kind of gross even when I just dipped my toast into them. My French toast was pretty sub-par... dry, with non-spectacular butter or syrup. My home fries were the highlight of the meal, but not enough for me to come back just for them.

Disappointing. 

They must have some great baked goods though, because (literally) everybody and their mother was coming in to buy their Thanksgiving cakes and pies. I think the people in front of us were only eating dessert for dinner that night. 

Vic's (Fremont, Nebraska)

Vic’s is a hidden gem in a sleep section of town in Fremont, Nebraska (about 40 minutes outside of Omaha). The place from the outside looks unimpressive at best, almost sketchy, with its storage space exterior and lack of windows. However, inside, a solid and creative breakfast awaits. 

It’s bigger and (much) cleaner than you may think when compared to some of the diners back home in New Jersey. The atmosphere here is simple and uncomplicated, with large tables and furniture that don’t quite match anything, but are comfortable and sturdy. The walls are decorated with various Lincoln Highway and Huskers paraphernalia. The mugs for our drinks were all mismatched, as if the owners/staff have been collecting them for years. My only complaint would have to be about the prep refrigerator that was occasionally left open for all to see the backup food and premixed sauces.  It was right under the television!

There was one waitress who sat us, took our orders, and even helped prep food in the kitchen. She was a Super Waitress who knew the menu, could make recommendations, as well as bus tables and refill coffee without being asked to do so.

For my meal, I ordered the veggie scramble. Finally, a legitimate vegetarian breakfast dish that doesn’t seem like a forced alternative to appear sensitive to non-meat eaters!  It was $7.95 for a scramble of broccoli, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and cheese topped with 2 eggs however you’d like it. I asked for mine to be fried to over-medium. And of course, I asked for hashbrowns to be thrown in for an extra $.60.

It’s a hearty breakfast and not for those on a diet, but not so fatty that you feel awful about yourself after. The cheese was not overdone (as I feared) and the veggies tasted fresh and almost sweet against the salt that was present. Hashbrowns were thin and crisped all the way through (think Waffle House-style). It came out hot with the eggs cooked properly. It reminded me a bit of an American-style bibimbap Korean dish) without the rice. My wheat toast was yummy and they didn’t skip on the butter which made me happy. However, the butter was unsalted, which was strange at first but eventually became a nice change. Overall, it was a unique breakfast with just enough indulgence and excess you’d expect from a dive-y establishment. This meal gets bonus points for keeping me full for most of the day and for not giving me a stomachache when I visited the zoo later that day. Chris went in a different direction for his breakfast:

I'm apparently in the middle of a biscuits and gravy phase at the moment, and thankfully, Vic's carried it on their menu. I would have loved to go with the one of the Husker Skillets, but they were both already ordered by others at the table. Their biscuits and gravy had components that ranged from mediocre to great. Let's start with the aspects that did not shine. The gravy itself was so-so. It congealed very quickly and looked and felt like a paste more than a smooth, rich gravy. The flavor of the gravy was good and I'm sure a lot of that came from the delicious bits of bacon scattered throughout. The biscuits were a step up from the gravy. Even through the mountain of sausage gravy that they were covered in, you could still tell they were fresh, soft and flaky. On the second plate that came out I got two eggs over medium and two sausage patties. The eggs were cooked perfectly. They were also fresh, lightly salted and just tasted like a great egg (maybe my mind is biased from being in Nebraska and thinking everything must come straight from the farm). The sausages were by far the highlight of the meal for me. The amount of fat in these two morsels was out of this world. Each patty was so incredible juicy and tender. The meat wasn't over worked and spiciness that was incorporated was incredible. Vic's sausages were hot but not uncomfortable. Next time I'm in Fremont, I will make it a point to go back to Vic's to get their sausage and eggs, and hopefully a Husker Skillet.

Additional notes:

Rachel Ray’s cooking show was playing on the TV, to which Chris’s dad said, “Why?” Wouldn’t that create an unconscious need to compare your food to the glamorized meals on the screen? Perhaps it works because Vic’s doesn’t pretend to be more than it is- neither pompous high-class food nor low-class campy. If you’re just a little bit country, you’ll fit right in.