Tilt’n Diner

If it’s your lucky day, you will eat at the Tilt’n Diner when roast beef hash is on the menu. Waitresses Cheri and Katy told me that the boys in the kitchen make it two or three times a week. It is terrific: subtly seasoned, moist and easy to fork up by the bite, with just enough spuds woven in among the beef to temper its protein potency. It’s pancake-shaped and gently fried so there is a crisp web on each side of the cake, but this hash is all about softness and comfort.

Corned beef hash, on the other hand, comes from a can and tastes it.

Among side dishes available with eggs, pancakes, etc., are baked beans. They are made-here baked beans with porky sweetness, and they add a welcome true-Yankee taste to the meal. The rest of the breakfast menu is predictable, and lunch includes burgers, sandwiches, and such locally-liked hot dishes as fried cod and shepherd’s pie with creamed corn. Buffetbuster got an enthusiastic thumbs up from the waitress when he ordered American chop suey — the Chinese-named, Italian-American comfort-food noodle casserole that is an old-time Yankee favorite.

The Tilt’n is a true mid-20th century diner with a large new room and kitchen added on the back. It is self-consciously do-wop, with oldies on the sound system and vintage pop culture memorabilia everywhere, but in fact it really is vintage… in looks, attitude, and much of the no-nonsense menu.