Speedway Cafe
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Can’t help but grin when I sit down to plastic-wrapped silverware. Tell me you’re sanitary without showing me the spotless kitchen. This diner is definitely a converted truck stop, once a quick bar break away from the Dover Motor Speedway. However, with the insertion of wide, deep booths—each equipped with its own pendant light the color and pattern of a the Earth’s clouds and oceans from space—this state must’ve been once upon a time. The family next to me ate their grits and pancakes, asked for boxes. “I’ll be back,” the little girl with braids dripping with beads yelled gleefully at me as she pulled on her shocking pink coat. I smiled. “Sure hope so,” I responded. Her smile stayed on her face and her eyes got wide as a stylish older man—in a Neo coat—pulled her to the door. “It’s 11:11,” someone exclaimed from the kitchen. It all followed doctrine from here. “We let you in here,” the waitress asked, poking fun at a regular. But, while this diner fits the mold, it’s also gold. Every staff member was courteous and kind—and I mean every one. They all apologized for getting in my pictures (which I begged them to not do. I’m in their way), and the response to my inability to choose a hot sauce was all the options—brought to me via that kangaroo pouch in the waiter’s apron. I admired the suspended criss-crossing wood that decorated the failing ceiling tiles and then turned my gaze to the sunny day. Astoundingly, there’s just laughter and happiness throughout...I’m going to state this plainly: if I could pick one diner to go back to at this very moment, it would be Speedway. In proper form, I might even speed a little along the way...what can I say? They close at three o’clock.
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Drink: Coffee
I drank it and...BROWN SUGAR. That’s what I tasted, but then I thought, maybe it’s just because it’s the first cup of the morning, the first cup of the new year. NOPE. This coffee got fruitier and riper as I went along. Wow. I was describing it to someone later and the words “gorgeous flavor” just rolled off the tongue. Not in a century could I have anticipated pairing this ultra visual word with a taste quality. I found out that they get their coffee from when the waitress brought around the pot: LACAS Coffee Co. out of New Jersey. I can’t stress enough how rare it is for a diner to serve a niche roaster (one from a different state no less) like this. Note: when I say niche, I mean in the sense that it isn’t Starbucks, Peet’s, Dunkin, Green Mountain, etc.—the ones with the big and cost-effective wholesale programs. Tack on refills, and this coffee (specifically LACAS’s Original City Roast) might just be the best diner coffee I’ve ever had, rivaling the likes of many of the crisply marketed cafes I’ve found false promise in over the years.
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Food: Vegetable Omelette
These were the words that accompanied the glorious plate of food placed in front of me: “The toast will be right out.” They didn’t dare try and wiggle off some potatoes. The rye toast gets its own plate. Correct. She listed the vegetables that were in the omelette before I’d ordered, and, sure enough, tomatoes, onions, broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, and peppers we’re all there, and all visible. None of that microscopic sprinkling of diced onion or one leave of spinach that you sometimes come across. I didn’t even know that it was possible to both taste and see everything in an omelette. The home fries were exactly the disproof of what I was lamenting just the other day. They were chunks; they were cooked with the occasional crispy edge; they were flavorful. They ask whether you want onions and you say yes (it doesn’t cost extra). The sautéed red onions, while adding an interesting oyster purple to the mix, elevate the potatoes to a whole other level. Finally, you didn’t think I forgot about that toast, did you? I can’t believe my life has come to this, but here it goes: I didn’t know that there was a way to make good rye toast. But, there is. Buttered like someone cared—not just hacked off and thrown in becoming half-solid, half-liquid globs—and made with ridiculously good rye (I could SEE the caraway seeds), I couldn’t have been more pleased. While the dish isn’t dreamy, it does everything SO well, and I can’t get over it.
Price: Coffee=$1.95; Vegetable Omelette=$8.25
Hours: Everyday {7–15}
Extra Notes:
Come on...COME ON. A VEGAN MENU? It’s at the back of the menu (hence why I didn’t order from it), but it’s full fledged, not just your eggless or cheeseless versions of the main menu. The options blew my mind: seitan, vegan sausage, and vegan chicken, in omelettes, quesadillas, hoagies, and gyros...it’s a couple extra bucks, but come on—loaded fries with fresh veggies, salsa, guacamole, and mozzarella? That little girl that always had to grab a loaded fry from the fringes—always to avoid the meat but keep the cheese—was jumping for joy.
Amanda made me cry of happiness the first day of the new year. Yes, she brought me to jubilant tears. I won’t say why here. No need. But—should she ever read this—I want to thank you again for getting excited about the coffee because I was excited about the coffee. Your small kindness absolutely consumed my heart, and I’ll be forever grateful. Starting off the year with a reminder of why I write, why coffee excites me, why I chronicle diners everywhere is just a priceless gift.