Robin at Jean’s Diner

We are very fortunate to have found Jean’s diner. We are usually to be found there at least once every weekend and once or twice a week. It is a very comfortable diner with friendly people and very good, very inexpensive food. You don’t just eat there, you become family.

We decided to kick off the weekend by getting up early, and heading to Jean’s in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., for some oat bran pancakes. (Jean actually died some years ago, her daughter runs the restaurant).

This is becoming a regular Saturday stop. I like the red tile floor, the funky local signs, and the grizzled farmers and carpenters who hand out there.

These pancakes – I get mine with blueberries, are quite wonderful. I get two strips of bacon and share one with Maria. We talk easily and openly, we rarely have strained silences in our marriage.

I have a new line whenever Maria gets annoyed with me. I say “don’t upset yourself,” and this has thrown her off a bit – she can’t help but laugh – although she’ll figure out how to come back soon enough.

Robin, our waitress, is special. She has our coffee and tea waiting for us before we sit down, and she even remembers that we usually get a short stack of pancakes – two pancakes.

The diner is always packed, but the service is always almost instant, I’m not sure how they do it.

Like every classy diner up here, there is big plastic tube of real maple syrup for each table. I love the feel of the place, a lot of farmers and working people, we just feel at home there.

Today, Maria is doing some heavy gardening – we’re planing the Three Sisters Garden. Lots of digging, manure spreading. I’m going to get the manure and help turning over the soil.  And recording the event in photographs, of course.