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sstrams
I've always called them "joints".. About 98% of the time we got eat out, its to a locally owned joint.. Greek last night - known the owners for years, Italian the night before - known them for years.. Couple of Mexican places where nobody speaks English - always the BEST Mexican food.. and several like you mention with lots of fried foods, gravy on everything and pies out the wazoo.. We also have several taco trucks in town with the BEST Mexican beach style street tacos - exactly like the ones we get on the beach in Mexico.. We have a hot dog truck, Cajun truck, Jamaican truck, and trucks of pretty much a truck for every style food..
We WILL occasionally go to a chain type place, but maybe only once a month, at best.. we prefer the local joints - that's where the good grub is... and if its not that great, they'll cover it in enough gravy so that it is.. lol
Portland is a unique situation. There are so many restaurants of so many kinds on so many different levels of expensiveness etc. that chains don't really thrive here. Denny's has a niche because they're 24 hours.
But diners do thrive here, right alongside the swanky grilles. They're usually breakfast/lunch joints.
I get into the "fine dining" when the opportunity presents itself, but usually just to fill-er-up I go to a diner. When I go, which one I go to just depends on which direction I am headed. So basically at least once or twice a week there is a waitress calling me "Hon" somewhere.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2018 11:52AM by zn.