I'll Have the Latkes

Have you ever visited those rooms at museums that depict the lifestyle and furnishings of a different era?

Pumpernick’s, an old-fashioned diner at 95th and Mission, merits a museum’s velvet rope and explanatory signage at the door. The text would read, Neighborhood "delis" remained popular in the United States throughout the twentieth century. Note the colorful garb of the elderly "regulars" who used the establishment as a social club. The gradual homogenization of American culture, along with the encroachment of chain restaurants, ended the popularity of such eateries.

I rarely frequent Pumpernick’s, but I prefer it to similar options First Watch and the bland but likable Waid’s. After all, they don’t serve beef tongue, fried matzo and pickled herring.