Suzanne Vega

3501 days ago

The Tom’s Diner I know and love is …the other one

Tom’s Diner is trending on twitter as Britney has a new version of the Suzanne Vega classic out and I must admit to rather liking it. The original is about a diner in Manhattan where Miss Vega used to have breakfast before heading off to work as a receptionist. But for me Tom’s is a diner called Tom's Restaurant which was a Saturday fixture where I lived in Brooklyn, in Prospect Heights.

It is an old family run gaffe, managed by a Greek American family since 1936, as much coffee as you want and all sorts of pancakes on a cold autumn morning. Those are my memories of Tom’s. It used to be a Saturday treat back in the mid-eighties when I lived there.

These days the brownstones in Prospect Heights change hands for $1.5-2 million and it is a neighbourhood where the old families, the Afro-Americans, the liberal old guard are moving out to be replaced by smart young couples from Wall Street.  Back in 1985-6 it was a bit different.

The folks I lived with had a dog. He was a harmless beast but

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