After far too many months we finally ate at The Diner Grill located at 1635 W Irving Park Rd in Chicago.

The service was great and the food was very tasty! Another fabulous grilled cheese was consumed by me and arranged in the most artistic manner that I have ever experienced! Joel had some eggs and made this fun face.

The Diner Grill is notorious for a special called the slinger. Flyers on the wall advertise it though it's not up on the menu board. One of the men working had a description of it on a paper in his pocket and he let me read it. All I can remember that is in it are cheeseburgers and hashbrowns, but it sounded quite special . A woman leaving as we came in recommended it to us, though we did not experience this special. You can also played lotto but this is one more aspect that we failed to experience fully.

Diner Score- 8
(Revised scoring system)
· Stools that spin
· Counter to eat at
· Claims of specialties on the menu or the wall
· Tables or countertop has boomerang-like 50’s pattern or formica
· Small jukeboxes on the tables or counter
· Breakfast anytime
· Neon clock or the sign outside has neon lights on it
· Seat Yourself
· No one gives you a menu
· It is in a diner car
· You can eat in your car

The Diner Grill is FABULOUS!

This past week was filled with fabulous diner experiences! We visited Superdawg to celebrate Mark's birthday. While this does not adhere as closely to the diner project format it is definitely worth posting about.

Superdawg is a drive in and located at Milwaukee Ave. at Devon and Nagle in Chicago. From the hotdogs on top of the building to the graphic design on everything this is one of the top diners out there.

I had grilled cheese, a chocolate shake, fries, and onion petals- all were delicious! The guys had hotdogs. Superdawg's slogan is "HIYA! From the bottom of my pure beef heart Thanks for Stopping"

We made fun video that notes when each of the hotdogs blinks, so that's one of the projects made on this outing. Mark's paper moustache is also another.

If you take photos people ask if you are from out of town. They seemed disappointed almost when we said we were from the city. One helpful diner gave me some photo advice which resulted in the cynatope photo.

Wonderful souviners such as t-shirts, keychains, postcards and other wonderful things are also available for purchase.

Diner project score: 4 (However, it seems this system might need to be adjusted to accomodate drive-ins).
· Claims of specialties on the menu or the wall
· Neon clock or the sign outside has neon lights on it
· Seat Yourself
· No one gives you a menu

One day I realized how much I love diners. Perhaps its the people, perhaps its the atmosphere, perhaps its the grilled cheese. That being said it seemed like it would be a good idea to create a project around diners, thus The Diner Project was born.

Visit and diner and do something, anything while you're there to record the experience. You could draw something you see, take some photos (especially one of the outside of the diner), write down overheard conversation or something you heard while there, as my friend Kristin says, the limits are endless!

The first question to figure out however is, what is a diner? My friend Mark and I came up with the following criteria.

Diners- How to know if you are in one and how good it is according to the diner scoring system- 1 point for each
· Stools that spin
· Counter to eat at
· Claims of specialties on the menu or the wall
· Tables or countertop has boomerang-like 50’s pattern
· Breakfast anytime
· Neon clock or the sign outside has neon lights on it
· Seat Yourself
· No one gives you a menu
· It is in a diner car

This blog will document my diner experiences as well as ask you to walk into a diner and DO something and send it my way.