Oh the classic American diner. The decades-old curtains. The “how ya doin’ hun” when you walk in the door. The white ceramic plates and coffee mugs that the waitress in the diner’s signature t-shirt rushes to fill. The menu that’s longer than my tuition statement with every food imaginable. Many of them are preservations of the past, and like such are disappearing year after year. I’ve been to quite a few small town diners throughout my childhood, usually with my dad, but since starting college the pastime has fallen by the wayside. Not just because a trip to Wawa is easier, but also because it’s hard to know the local diners when you’re not a local. Little did I know that there was a place with this exact feel right around the corner: Daddypops.
Daddypops is a quaint little one-room diner located in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. It was featured on Season 3 Episode 4 of the iconic early 2000’s television show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, which has got to say something about its quality—or at least its quality in 2008.
After watching a clip of the show that had possibly the worst 2000s-era video quality I’ve ever seen, I was dying to know whether the diner had held up after all these years, or whether it was still in existence at all.
Lo and behold it was. On a rainy day just a week or two ago my boyfriend and I made the trip to the little corner diner.However small you think it is, think smaller. It’s got one row of bar seating, featuring old wooden barstools and one antique barber’s chair on each end. The perimeter is lined with regular wooden booth seating, framed by only slightly dated green floral wallpaper and curtains. For the most part the place looks exactly like it did in the 2008 episode I watched just days before my visit. The wall of customers’ mugs that Fieri mentions in the episode is there, as well as a faded poster of Guy Fieri himself on the far wall. Having made the cold and windy walk in from my car, we slipped into a booth in the corner and prepared ourselves for whatever experience was to come.
The waitresses were classic American diner material, friendly and efficient. Of course I had to start myself off with a glass of chocolate milk, as is my personal tradition at diners. The milk was adequate, a little gritty from its obviously hand-mixed nature but pretty comparable to the average 20th century diner. I even tried a sip of the coffee that my boyfriend ordered, just to be thorough. I despise coffee, but he confirms that “the coffee was solid, but not anything groundbreaking”.
Next was the big decision: the meal. The daddypops menu was simple but with a great selection. It had all the usual favorites, and even specialty items like the “Daddypops Quickie” (Which I could comment on, but I won’t). In the episode that Daddypops is featured in, Fieri spends most of the episode showcasing scrapple, Daddypops’ specialty. Unfortunately I was not able to fairly review this important aspect of Daddypops’ culture. I’ve never tried scrapple nor am I entirely sure what’s in it. Maybe it’s a generational thing but I don’t have the desire to find out. The episode did also mention the restaurant’s excellent potatoes, which I can get behind. I ended up ordering a long-time favorite of mine—the bacon and cheese omelet with hash browns. You truly can never go wrong with an omelet, and I was intrigued to see how this diner would fare with such a staple breakfast food. My boyfriend, for similar reasons, decided to try the eggs benedict.
Perhaps this article would be more interesting if the kitchen had spontaneously lit my food on fire, or if the meal tasted as much like 1987 as the restaurant looked. Quite honestly though, the food was good. Really good in fact. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the quality of the food really held up. It also maintained the classic cheap diner prices. My omelet was perfectly cooked and my hash browns were perfectly crispy at times but delectably soft at others.
Overall the joy of the experience was that it wasn’t extraordinary. Many a good diner has been ruined by a fancy renovation and new ownership. Sometimes I just want to sit in a cracked vinyl booth with a completely average glass of chocolate milk — catching up with my boyfriend or my dad or some friends — eating pretty good food for pretty good prices. That’s all we really expect from a cozy local diner, isn’t it? If so, Daddypops did it perfectly.
It was clear by the end of my visit that Guy Fieri picked a good one for that episode. Not only did the food exceed my expectations but the homey local atmosphere was nostalgic, taking me back to breakfasts with my dad at the most hole-in-the-wall local spots. Many of those dining relics have disappeared as the century has progressed, but Daddypops lives on, and for good reason. I can safely say that I highly recommend it.
All images by Jewel Miller.
