By Arthur Schwartz
5 July 2024
Most months I have used my new role as a restaurant reviewer to tout new eateries. But after needing a place to meet a client on a Sunday afternoon, I suggested the Waverly Diner, on 6th Avenue at Waverly Place. I hadn’t been there in 15 years, but it was a great rediscovery. There are three diners left in Greenwich Village–Waverly, the Washington Square Diner and the Bus Stop Café. They still let us dine on a broad variety of well-prepared “home” cooking, like they have for decades.
Since 1979, the Waverly Diner’s neon sign has burned on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Waverly Place, calling to New Yorkers in search of breakfast, early dinners, afterparty comedowns, and late mornings-after. The menu at the Waverly carries the best in “diner food:” stacked buttermilk pancakes, Challah French toast with burnt edges, greasy patty melts with American cheese dripping off the sides, a Muenster cheese omelet, parmigiana, Greek specialties, and entrées which seem a little overdone for a neighborhood joint–like lobster tails with crabmeat stuffing. Scattered among the classics there are concessions to the 21st century, like the avocado specials laminated in the middle of the menu as well as sautéed specials. And then there are espresso shakes and egg creams!!
While the suburban décor of a diner is chrome and Formica, the Waverly actually hearkens back to an earlier model, a kind of working-class steakhouse with dark-wood paneling, snug, vinyl-padded booths, and a very small counter of backless stools. In keeping with the more familiar diner tradition, there’s still a glowing rack of cakes and pies. And finally, one can get a bottomless cup of coffee!
Waverly Diner385 Sixth Ave., New York, NY, 10014 212-675-3181
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