During the golden age of the big bands, life was lived on a tour bus. You didn't eat starter-main-dessert but to the rhythm of the asphalt: the 'blue plate special' gulped down standing at the chrome counter of a diner, the sandwich nibbled between two cities, the bottomless coffee, and the late-night party after the concert in a Harlem supper club or a Chicago club. The meal was organized around the counter, the griddle, and the concert schedule, not around the family table.

The diner's signature technique is short-order griddle cooking; the thread of tour-bus life is black coffee, endlessly refilled, companion to cigarettes and sleepless nights on the road.