A breakfast of fried eggs, homefries and sausages from the Red Bank Diner on Broad Street. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Since the unexpected closing of the Broadway Diner on Monmouth Street two months ago, the question of where you can get breakfast for dinner in Red Bank has been on some ravenous minds.
Although it’s not open 24 hours a day, you can indeed have the customary first meal of the day when others are eating their last at the Red Bank Diner on Broad Street.
“We serve breakfast all day long, including pancakes,” says diner owner Louis Kanellos.
Comfortable booths, tables for a crowd, and counter service are all part of the Red Bank Diner, located just a few doors down from the post office on Broad Street. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
“I brought my customers with me from Monmouth Street,” says waitress Mary Simeone, a Broadway Diner refugee. A few of the other, suddenly-out-of-work waitresses found jobs here, too.
The atmosphere is typical diner style, with booths for four dominating the floor space, plus tables that can be put together for larger groups in the back. For those in need of the lunch-counter-with-twirling-stools experience, there’s that, too.
The beauty of having a diner in your neighborhood is being able to order a meal and get exactly what you expect: nothing fancy or gourmet, and a nothing-fancy tab. A plate of sunny-side eggs, home fries, sausage and toast with iced coffee set us back $8. Breakfast for two was under $20, and we didn’t have to leave Red Bank to enjoy it.
The menu runs the gamut from soup du jour to wet walnuts on your ice cream sundae, but knowing that you can order pancakes at the dinner hour, and get a side of fries with that, while never leaving town? That’s worth getting up late for.
The diner is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays from 7 to 3.
