Jersey Diners

New Jersey Monthly named Peter Genovese one of the twenty-five "New Jerseyans We Love."

There is nothing more "Jersey" than a diner. Adorning the highways and byways of fully half of the state's 566 municipalities, no one in New Jersey lives far from one. There are more diners here than in any other state, and on top of that, one of the two remaining diner manufacturers is located in the Garden State.

In a year of roadside research, Peter Genovese talked to owners, employees, and customers, and ate more bacon and egg sandwiches than he cares to remember. The result is a funny, revealing book about a beloved American institution. Whether you want to know where and how diners started, who invented eggs served in a skillet, why these twenty-four-hours-a-day eateries are so popular, or, most important, which one has the best French toast, Jersey Diners has the answers.

Packed with facts, trivia, and stories about the owners, employees, and clientele, the book is also complemented with over three hundred evocative, beautiful photos of the buildings, their distinctive dTcor, the food, and the people who love it from Sussex to Salem counties.

This newly revised edition includes a fully updated directory that details where you can find every diner throughout the state!

PETER GENOVESE, a feature writer for The Star-Ledger, eats, lives-even dreams-New Jersey. The author of The Jersey Shore Uncovered, Roadside New Jersey, and The Great American Roadtrip (all published by Rutgers University Press), he has driven more than one million miles around the state in the past twenty years.