Our Plan

One thing I know is that the idea wasn't mine. Olga and I had been sitting there in the Hillsborough Diner downing our first cups of coffee, and were just beginning to take the place in, and I'll swear to this day that the waitress must have brought the whole plan over like a plate full of french toast dripping with syrup and dropped it right in our laps. That's sure how it felt, anyway.

The drive over had been a picture-perfect way to start the weekend -- winding up over Lempster Mountain and meandering into Hillsborough with one hand on the steering wheel, one hand on Olga's knee, and the conversation flowing easily over a background of Greg Brown singing about Spring and what's left of the hippies. Truth be told, we weren't even headed for the Hillsborough Diner -- but it's an awful difficult thing to drive by a place like that when your travel mug is empty. So I looked at Olga, she looked at me, and we veered into the parking lot and grabbed what must have been the last spot in the lot.

Once inside the diner, we sidled into the booth and began to cast our eyes about the place. The waitress had brought the menus over, and filled up a couple of big mugs of coffee for us, and our eyes darted about the room, devouring the veritable feast of montages and one-act-plays unfolding in the booths and tables around us. Specials boards announcing the freshest homemade pies, tables of good friends just in from a morning of fishing, advertisements on the place-mats for the best place to get your brakes fixed, the two-year old girl in the booth beyond us already starting to play peek-a-boo with me, a waitress coming out of the kitchen with four plates balanced on her arms, and in the middle of all, Olga, with her hair in loose braids, and hot-damn there is nothing in the world that is better than starting a Saturday morning just like this.

I don't remember who spoke first, but suffice it to say that by the time the last bite of toast was gone, we'd hatched a plan to visit 52 diners across New Hampshire in 52 weeks.

At each restaurant we will order one standard breakfast of 2 eggs over-easy, potatoes, toast and bacon. We will also order either what the server recommends, or something from the specials board. Not only will we be reviewing the food and coffee, but also the atmosphere, service, cleanliness, etc.

We may choose not to put the entire review here, as we might need to save some of the dirty details for our book! However, if you are like us, and are always looking for a good place to get breakfast, then maybe this will be helpful. Happy eating!