Is the Nickel Diner in poor taste?

What do you make of the Nickel Diner, located in the heart of downtown's skid row, whose menu includes "Smac and cheese" and 5- and 10-cent "bags"? Jessica Gelt took a peek and came away less than amused:

This kind of flippant riff on the history of this area of town could be excused if that history were a distant memory and downtown was a kind of CityWalk mock-up of its former self. But that's not the case. As Times columnist Steve Lopez pointed out in a series of stories about skid row, the area is still awash in desperation and filled with hopelessness in large part because of an epidemic of drug use.

The Nickel Diner is located along the stretch of Main south of the super-trendy Old Bank District; as soon as you cross 5th Street, the fedora-wearing hipsters and poncho-clad hippies give way to the homeless, drug users and beggars, one of whom sat mere feet from the diner itself when I visited, watching well-heeled professionals come and go.

Check out the rest of Jessica's thoughts on the diner in our food blog, Daily Dish.

--Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[Wendy Abrams]

I think The Nickel is in good taste and the neighborhood needs it. The owners are downtowners and are part of the community so lighten up. They have created a sense of place and they don't take themselves too seriously. It's part of their charm and the food is damn good.
W

[veronica]

I love the Nickel Diner! The food is fantastic, and reasonably priced. The owner developed her legendary "smac and cheese" recipe for her children [who named it], which became a signature dish at North [now Hyde].

The decor is simple, classic & comfortable. The servers are young and friendly. Rockabilly music was playing the first time I had lunch. There are large windows which make it a sunny, cozy room. It's good fun!

Skid rows are tragic realities of all US. cities. I salute the owners of the Nickel who serve coffee and cobbler to the downtown poor as well as artists, the employed, well-heeled loft-dwellers and all who enter their establishment.

The Nickel Diner is a welcome and much-needed addition to the area.

[Lina McLaine]

As a downtown resident constantly in search for a great breakfast, the Nickel Diner a welcome change from the complete lack of places that seem to think that everyone gets up at seven in the morning.
They don't.
Sure, I could go to Denny's and Ihop and get their well known, clog your arteries breakfast and sure, I could get up earlier. But I'm not mostly because I value my sleeping time and I like my heart.
Anyway, the owners are two long time Downtown residents who have seen and helped the area flourish into the thriving metropolis it SHOULD be, not the decrepit cesspool of filth, negligence, and waste our government has let it become. The interior has a warm, buttery feeling that recalls fond memories of standing in my mother's kitchen and the atmosphere invokes those same feelings I had when dancing with her in the kitchen to Elvis while she taught me spaghetti.
The menu is simple comfort foods that provokes nostalgia to times when food tasted like food and you can best be sure she doesn't use maple syrup substitutes for those pancakes. And that butter you're eating? Guess what, it's real butter! And the names pay homage to the area around them. I think that the only people who are offended by the names are people who aren't from the area themselves. I find no problem going into the cafe and asking for a dime bag, knowing full well what a dime bag actually means and knowing what the area is.
But I can understand that asking for a well known drug measurement is uncomfortable for you. You probably don't come from the area. In fact, you're probably from an area where breakfast is readily available in all it's glorious forms. And they're probably given some cute name like "The Lumberjack Stack".
The Nickel is not in poor taste, as you call it. The Nickel is a saving grace to the burgeoning downtown and will hopefully stay with us for many decades to come.
Poor taste. Hah!

[michael dario]

I believed the items & prices painted on the wall (25 cent burgter - 10 cent coffee, etc., etc., etc.) were for real. I live down the street @ Santa Fe Lofts. I went in nickel diner & was given this paper menu with prices like La Cienega! I walked out (yesterday) Guess I (really) had unrealistic expectations!