I love small town diners that manage to keep their almost-rustic charms. I like seeing huge menus that work for all tastes and times of day when they don’t overwhelm the kitchen. I can enjoy spacious places with several nooks to let people settle into the atmosphere they would prefer. I always appreciate friendly staff that can resolve any situation like clockwork. What I hate, however, is showing up to a mostly-entire menu kind of corpo shoot and being told that the only way that’s going to happen is via the game of human conveyor belt, and that is exactly how this shoot panned out.
I walked in in my usual, 15-minute-early kind of manner, and as seemingly usual nobody had a clue that a massive shoot was supposed to take place that early evening. General manager on duty called the owner of the place, and pretty much let me know that the only possible way this could go down is for me to wait and pray that the dead pre-Friday-dinner lack of customers would order enough unique plates for me to sniff in the very back of the restaurant. I always understand when restaurants don’t want to waste food, especially a huge amount of food like I was informed this shoot to have been – there is always the option to scale things down when ordering these corpo shoots. Better yet, there is always the option for me to skip 2+ hours of traffic on a Friday evening for a smaller shoot, but there I was and did not want to leave with an empty wallet and burnt gas. Having to potentially sit and stare at the walls for up to 3 hours is never my idea of a good time. There wasn’t much to do than to accept a free iced tea and commence the waiting game….
Interior is essentially split into a massive dining hall with corner booths around giant round tables and the rest of the floor is filler with normal tables and an army of chairs. The Diner then has a coffee bar wing with classic booths and a bar, though there was no booze in sight that can be the magic touch to killing time, and I was packed into that wing.
That day being a Friday eventually paid off since the hungry patrons started pouring in later than sooner, and the fact that they had a slew of drinks and pre-made cakes helped pass the dreadful pre-dinner silence. As you guys and gals know, all these corpo delivery companies use the stupidly-named “hero” shots that I simply call spreads, and over the years the criteria for those increased oppositely proportional to payouts. Getting 6+ items together for this group shot however, becomes real fun when but single orders are passed through my camera and I before being rushed off to the tables that ordered them. This hero/group shot is something we have to deliver and it can easily turn to a potential annoyance when faced with this conveyor belt of a situation. I usually lucked out before, and thankfully at this shoot as well, but that feeling stays with you until you manage to create a culinary traffic jam and make some customers wait for their food. Such is life though.
So, in terms of actual offerings that blessed my eyesight, what did Charles Town Family Diner pass through me?
Quite a massive variety of food ranging from cakes, to breakfast items, sandwiches, proper dinner plates of steak and haddock that they cook in variety of ways, soups, pasta – really a complete and well-rounded variety. This gave me a good glimpse of what the locals would typically order here, and I would question breakfast food for dinner as well as lighter things like lunch sandwiches being enough for the hungry working folks, but thus I knew that I wasn’t the only one who would eat lighter meals.
The real test of the staff’s sympathy in these situations is their willingness to just sling some smaller items and sides to help speed up the whole process, and the GM here very kindly obliged. I won’t even show you things like cole slaw, cucumbers, and single scoops of things like mash potatoes, but they ran quite a good few of those through me which lifted up my mood. As long as it’s on the menu – it’s all fair game in these situations, and any and every little bowl or plate to shave hour(s) of this kind of shoot.
My ironclad rule for these corpo shoots is never to ask, and never to refuse any offerings and I typically expect to get more than an iced tea from shoots of this scale, but alas. How did any of that mouth-watering-looking grub taste? I couldn’t personally tell you, but everything did smell on-point to how it looked. I’m anything but a foodie, but around dinner time and especially after quite the hike to get somewhere – even I would get hungry smelling dozens upon dozens of hot plates passing me by.
From observing the staff and partially the kitchen hustle and bustle that Friday, I can confidently tell you that this place is worth a visit if you’re passing through the area and did not fill up in Harper’s Ferry restaurants that are along route 340 westbound.
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