Circle E Diner

The Circle E is a good ol’ diner just a hop off of Highway 17 in New York’s southern tier. It’s the type of place that serves breakfast all day, boasts of homemade pies for dessert, and offers French fries with cheese, gravy, or gravy and cheese.

We arrived mid-day Sunday and the place was packed, with a line out the door of people waiting for a booth or counter seat. No big deal: service is fast, and it is not the kind of restaurant where customers tend to linger over after-dinner coffee and chocolate peanut butter pie.

Stephen Rushmore said the two must-eat dishes on the menu were the corned beef hash and the Circle E Burger. The hash proved to be good and oily, glistening brick-red and dotted with potatoes. Finger-wagging nutrition nannies would have a cow over this stuff, but for diner aficionados, it’s a hash-house icon. We also enjoyed our corn muffin, a fine-grained hunk of sweetbread with a gnarled top. And we admired, but did not sample, stacks of blueberry pancakes and Texas-thick French toast on their way to other people’s tables.

The Circle E Burger, which we ate before photographing (hence our sad photo of a plain hamburger) is fine. The patty itself isn’t extraordinary – it’s a machine made circle of beef – but the cheddar cheese and grilled onions piled on top transform it into a roadside burger to remember.