Food & Drink: The Diner: Good food for a good cause

At the entrance, a large glass counter is filled with individual pies (chocolate cream, lemon meringue and seasonal berry) so perfect they look like they fell out of a Wayne Thiebaud painting. The pies are baked daily at the Meals on Wheels People’s kitchen in Portland and brought to the restaurant. On top of the pie display are two cake servers with glass domes containing two kinds of housemade coffee cake — a traditional cinnamon swirl and a Spanish-inspired cake topped with a Kahlua drizzle.

After several visits, I discovered the place to sit is at the counter, where you can overhear entertaining banter among the waitresses and chat with them and other patrons. As a child of the ’80s, I watched many episodes of the TV show “Alice,” so I know that every diner needs a waitress with a big personality. This diner has Dea Taylor. She doesn’t have Flo’s large blond bouffant; what she lacks in big hair, she makes up in personality. She’s funny and friendly, with a natural way of engaging customers. On one visit, I heard her say to a parting customer, “Bye, sir. Have a groovy day.” She also complimented me on my red-and-white checked Vans, but said they wouldn’t look as good on her size 10 feet. “They would look like boats,” she told me.

Fresh, clean diner classics

The restaurant is open every day from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. I tried a bit of breakfast (The Diner’s traditional and a veggie country scramble) and some lunch (a tuna melt). The Diner’s traditional ($6.95) is a good choice for someone like me who wants to eat a bit of everything. There are two eggs, breakfast potatoes and choice of pancake, biscuit or toast. I added two strips of bacon for an extra $1.95. Everything was just right — the eggs (which I ordered scrambled) were fluffy and light; the potatoes well-seasoned; the biscuit buttery and flaky.

The veggie scramble was a generously portioned mix-up of scrambled eggs, spinach, mushrooms, red and green peppers, sauteed onions, tomatoes, breakfast potatoes and mozzarella cheese. Half an avocado and fresh salsa were placed on the side. I ordered a biscuit because I remembered how much I enjoyed it on my last visit.

The tuna melt was exactly what you want — toasted white bread surrounding creamy tuna salad and luscious melted cheddar cheese. The tuna salad had a good amount of mayo, crispy chopped celery and bits of pickle mixed into it. It came with fries, coleslaw or side salad. I chose the crinkle-cut fries, which were disappointing. They were more Ore-Ida than Shake Shack. They were crispy, but lacked the soft baked potato center that gives a crinkle cut fry its complexity.

This food is traditional diner food, but it tastes cleaner and fresher than your typical diner. Diners that have been open for decades have the benefit of griddles that have been seasoned for decades. Despite the lack of aged grease, the food here is well made, fresh, deeply satisfying and affordable.

This isn’t Meals on Wheels People’s only commercial venture to raise funds for its programs. They also own and operate PDXPOP — a company that sells gourmet popcorn in flavors such as salted butter toffee, white cheddar and candied lemon.

Selling food to support a good cause isn’t new. Women have been organizing bake sales to raise funds for schools, field trips and sports teams for decades. Georgia Gilmore organized other African-American women to sell cakes, pies and dinners to raise money for the alternative transportation system during the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956.

It isn’t a new idea, but it’s a great idea. The Diner not only raises money for a good cause, it creates an intergenerational community gathering place to ease social isolation and loneliness for seniors and everyone else in the community.

Rachel Pinsky can be reached at couveeats@gmail.com. You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram @couveeats.