Tastee Diner

For an area so rich in history, it's hard to find in Bethesda traces of a world before suburbs became suburbia. It's hard to envision the lycra-laden Capital Crescent Trail as the rail line it was less than 25 years ago, before some genius(es) had the foresight to establish the Rails to Trails Conservancy. It's hard to imagine a village of bungalows before they were all renovated and bumped up. And it's hard to imagine what people did here on the weekends before our major brands homogenized the nation and our lives, and taught us to cruise Rockville Pike for things to make us happy.

Tastee Diner is a glimpse into that world. With their Chipped Beef and Corned Beef, and over-cooked pasta, and International Omelet, and Baked Turkey Dinner, and daily soups and Blue Plate Specials, you're reminded of an America we've outgrown (though the menu excludes the once popular "diet" plate: lean ground beef patty with low-fat cottage cheese). It's all the food we're too sophisticated for now, because we've all learned how to make a roux. But it's still our comfort food, and our culinary and cultural foot prints.

There are three Tastee Diners—Bethesda, Laurel and Silver Spring—but it's not the kind of chain where you can't tell which one you just walked into. It's the kind where they just had a good thing going. The first one opened in 1935. I don't know in what order they opened, but the one in Silver Spring was built in 1946, and was moved in 2000 to make way for Discovery Communications. All three look equally shabby and retro, though I suppose they're not so much retro as just plain old. Even the staff is a throwback, replete with too-bright lipstick and tons of hon's. You can hardly imagine them walking out into today's Bethesda, and making their way to some today's apartment or house. They must slip out the back to the '50's.

You, however, will walk right out into today, where we can get a "real" cup of coffee across the street at Starbuck's, and the Capital Crescent Trail is Rails to Trails' trail of the month. But maybe you'll be humming "Return to Sender" by Elvis, which maybe you played on the table-top juke box. And maybe you'll feel a little more like a curmudgeon than a yuppie, at least until the tuna melt wears off.

Tastee Diner , 7731 Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, 301-652-3970, open 24 hours

Tastee Diner print by Enid Romanek, available for sale at www.enidromanek.com.

Comments

[b-town local]

The Tastee has been serving generations of locals and passer-thrus. We used to stop in all the time either on the way home from Georgetown (when it had a decent live music scene) or from listening to the Nighthawks rocking at the Pysche Delly (site of the current Flanagan's). The waitresses have been cranky and no nonsense for decades