A look back at some classic Atlanta diners

You’re salivating at the thought of hitting one — or, if you’re ambitious, all — of the eateries profiled in the Dining Guide.

Now ... how about a little history lesson with that pie and coffee?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Howard Pousner took readers on a tour of six classic Atlanta diners in the summer of 1982 — the Majestic, Junior’s Grill, the Silver Grill, the Luckie Grill, the Silver Skillet and Dunk ’n Dine — dishing out a bit of background on the local establishments as well as serving up some backstory on how the venerable institution of the diner was birthed in America.

Diners, Pousner wrote, “evolved from Walter Scott’s horse-drawn lunch cart, which made its debut in 1872 in Providence, R.I. By 1912, mobile, walk-in diners were so plentiful there they had to be banished from the streets during certain hours.”

Clearly, that’s not a problem these days, as local diners continue evolving with changing tastes. Home Grown, for instance, offers farm-to-table dishes that feed the modern appetite for seasonal eats even as the restaurant never loses sight of the comfort foods that Atlantans crave. You’ll find an old Southern diner standby, the Basic Breakfast — two eggs any style with bacon, grits and toast or a biscuit — on the menu, along with its northern cousin, the Bagel Sammy — whipped onion chive, spinach, roasted tomato and bacon on an Emerald City everything bagel.

“You don’t find diners pushing McQuiche and the like,” the AJC told readers in 1982. While that certainly was true then, menus are a bit broader in 2024.

Still, however modern the cuisine might be nowadays, there’s a constancy about diners that brings the faithful back time after time.