Strange what brings these past things so vividly back to us sometimes…..Harriet Beecher Stowe

I recently had the pleasure of dining with a colleague and fellow car hag at a little place called the Bread Crumb. The Bread Crumb is a luncheonette. I love that word, luncheonette, it is incredibly nostalgic as was this gem of a place. It serves breakfast and lunch, that’s it.  The décor is pretty much the same as it’s always been, booths on one side, a few tables scattered along the other side and middle. The wall paper must have been impeccably hung as it appears to be a decades old design. The menu is limited and old fashioned in a way that makes you believe you are back in your hometown in your teens.

The woman I was lunching with is one of those people I always knew I would enjoy. Her sense of humor is quick, her work ethic is awesome, she’s got a story like most of us and I could have chatted with her for hours. Unfortunately the Bread Crumb closes at 1:30pm but the keys go in the door at 1:15pm. You will get shooed along if you’ve not finished your lunch which is usually where I find myself as a notoriously slow eater.

I was told the Bread Crumb makes the best chicken salad but my go to was always the BLT. While enjoying my BLT I couldn’t help but think of the places the Bread Crumb reminded me of, Luhmann’s Ice Cream Parlor with its narrow back hall up the stairs to the parking lot. The Woolworth’s lunch counter where many a cherry coke and fries were consumed after school. And of course, Dan’s Deli a block from the High School that made the best home fries ever, served in a paper coffee cup to go.

It was clear that the clientele at the Bread Crumb was older. Where else could one get a wink from an older gentleman in a bow tie. Who else but me would brazenly wink back? There is a sadness in the fact that this clientele might be the last to frequent the luncheonette. There is nothing fancy, nothing modern to offer the younger generations. Even more sad is the fact that this type of neighborhood establishment was already a dying entity as witnessed by the long ago closed establishments I was so nostalgic about. Only Dan’s Deli will remain as long as the high school does.

Regardless of its fate, I love that this little hole in the wall in a strip mall is staying true to their roots, serving a simply decent meal at a fair price to a regular clientele and a few strangers accompanied by a local. They work hard, are courteous and out by 1:45pm, the latest.