inspired by r_ness

[totient]

For some time I have been dissatisfied with Rein's Deli as a lunch stopover when driving to or from Boston. The food's not all that great, particularly when compared to the delis in New York, which is often the endpoint for such a trip. The atmosphere has begun to grate on me. It's not really far enough from Boston. Etc, etc, etc. Mainly what it has going for it is that when traveling to conventions I'm likely to run into people I know -- but wouldn't that time be better spent at the convention in question?

So, I've been searching for a replacement. I've been to the diner just down the street from Rein's, which is open later than Rein's. The food's a little better, too, but it's still too close to Boston (and slightly further from the highway). There is a wonderful sushi place (variously called Hana or Hama, depending on which sign and/or phone book listing you encounter) in Hamden, but they're far from the highway, they aren't open for lunch, and sushi tends to be slower and more expensive than I'm looking for in road food.

Meanwhile, I've been getting to know the back roads of New England by going on a lot of road rallies. As part of this experience, I've tried a bunch of restaurants, some of which have been outstanding.

It was only on my way to New York a week and a half ago that I connected these two activities. We stopped on the way down at the Cromwell Diner, on Berlin Road (route 372) just west of exit 21 on I-91 near Middletown. We stopped there on the way back too, even though (or perhaps especially because) we had also stopped at the Krispy Kreme in Milford, bought nine dozen donuts, and eaten a dozen of them. A small sign on the wall behind the register proclaims, on behalf of some Hartford TV station, that this is the best diner in Connecticut, and (if only because it's not New Jersey) I believe it. Mm, good. Open 24 hours.

Comments

[drbitch.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pointer. We've pretty much given up on Rein's as well. These days we're more likely to just eat something before hitting the road and push on to NYC for excellent pastrami at Katz's. On the way back, we often detour into New Haven for Pepe's pizza, but it's nice to know about an alternative.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

You know, I've passed that place dozens of times, and I've never been there. Of course, I now intend to do something about that.

There's a lot of competition for "Best Diner in Connecticut", though. For one thing, O'Rourke's is right down Rt. 9. Then again, if the Cromwell Diner is a traditional 24 hour diner, it's apples and oranges.

Now that I think of it, there are a remarkable number of diners over there. I can think of four within five miles: Cromwell, Athenian, O'Rourke's, and Olympia. I suspect I'm forgetting a couple more. And this is Cromwell! There's no there there!

[perci.livejournal.com]

I hate to seem like I missed the point of this post, but I'm really sort of stuck on NINE. DOZEN. DONUTS.

[fin9901.livejournal.com]

You and me both. My personal limit on Krispy Kremes now is something like 4 at once.

Oh, and even though the Hot Now ones are amazing when you get them hot, if you let them cool down they end up stuck firmly to the bottom of the box and you have to tear them to pieces to get them unstuck.

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

There were three of us in the car, so the dozen we ate is four apiece; I'm with Brad on that being the right number to eat at once. And you have to remember, there are no Krispy Kremes in Boston (yet). So there's a lot of pent-up demand. And between the three of us we were headed to four New Years parties and an Arisia meeting in the 24 hours after we got back to Boston. Plus there's the collective passel of housemates and visitors to our respective residences who we were going to want to feed Krispy Kremes to.

All the donuts were eaten within 36 hours of coming off the line.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

You've got it right about the pent-up demand. Since KK opened in Connecticut, I've passed the Milford store three or four times and the Newington one once. There was one time I considered going into the one in Milford but a glance at the parking lot convinced me this wasn't a great idea.

I'm sure convenience has changed my feelings about the donuts; when I was in the Bay Area we actually thought it worthwhile to drive half an hour down 101 to go to the one in Mountain View.

Hmmm. Then again, maybe it was also because there was an In-N-Out Burger across the parking lot.

Now there's a combination.

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

Another thing: you haven't lived until you have inhaled the aroma of twenty thousand Krispy Kreme donuts, which is how many were present in the store when we went in.

[cos]

I'm still satisfied with Rein's. I could find better food, but I do like a place where other people I know are likely to be, on the road. For a place to serve that role, it needs to be right next to the highway, and extremely easy to direct people to. If someone's never been to Rein's but will be travelling Boston<->NY they're gonna pass by it anyway, and I can give them verbal directions that they can easily remember without even having to write them down. For someplace to replace Rein's it would have to be that easy, and that convenient. Suggestions?