The Diner serves community with 25-year breakfast tradition
The Diner is in a constant state of motion from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., its normal operating hours.
Cooks bring orders to the front counter and waitstaff go from table to table helping customers. Visitors come and go from the restaurant on 894 South Mission Rd., with some sitting down and others grabbing takeout.
The Diner prides itself on breakfast menu that includes a variety of pancakes, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, omelettes and more. It serves hot sandwiches, soups, salads and burgers for dinner. Every Friday, there is a fish fry dinner with cod, catfish, perch and walleye.
Waitresses call some regular customers by name as they take their order. As some patrons get up and leave a table, a few others shuffle in and join the conversation as if they’d been there the whole time.
Manager Cerry Mullins has been working at The Diner for about 17 years. She's had a few other jobs in between, but The Diner has always been her home.
“I always come back, because it's what I know,” she said. “I always joke and say I’ll be buried out back.”
The Diner waitstaff is a tight-knit crew that has known each other for years. Once people start working there, they like to stay for a while, Mullins said.
In the 25 years it has been open, restaurant ownership has changed, but it has always stayed in the same family. The owner for the past eight years, Kara Fritz, started at The Diner as a server when she was 15 years old, Mullins said.
“She’s a very generous boss and really takes care of her employees well,” she said.
Cortney Sanders has been working at The Diner for six years. The days are busy and go by quick, but it’s an enjoyable job, she said.
“Everyone works together,” Sanders said. “It’s like a second family.”
Zeeland senior Mark Elgersma discovered The Diner when he was a freshman and went with several of his friends. He’s been going back for breakfast ever since. He orders the veggie omelette. The food is only part of the experience, he said.
“For me, it’s mainly the atmosphere that you go there for — the restaurant that is an idyllic place,” he said. “It’s very much a quintessential diner.”
The Diner can provide an abundance of friendly faces as well as a warm breakfast, Elgersma said. He filmed at The Diner for a short film and was touched by how kind and willing to help everyone was.
“It’s very cool to see that there is a part of the community that treats the students like just as much a part of the community as everyone else,” he said. “The food’s great too.”
