Bethesda's Tastee Diner

After a 30 year hiatus I am beginning to feel my way around the Woodmont area of Bethesda where my new Keller Williams office  is located. As it happens my office window overlooks the Tastee Diner, a B-town fixture for all of my life. Long, long ago, I used to live in a group house of young singles on Madison St. behind Suburban Hospital. Bethesda was a simpler place then as it has not undergone the massive redevelopment that the metro station brought. Although there were plenty of decent places to eat in Bethesda, most were not the upscale trendy eateries that you find today. Prices were a lot more reasonable too. Most of the time the Tastee Diner was our eatery of choice. It was gritty and cheap with a lot of local flavor. Usually after our regular weekly all night poker game the winner would treat the less fortunate to breakfast at the diner. I think every American should spend some time in an old fashioned diner at three AM in the morning.

Yesterday I took a walk, mainly to check out restaurants in the area and to get a bite to eat. There really are a lot of decent places to choose from and the variety of food is greater than you would find when I lived in Bethesda. I ended up back at my office and saw that they were advertising beef stew as a special at the diner. So, I went in and had lunch there. I had not been inside the dinner in three decades.  Amazingly, it has not really changed. In today's dinning world of tapis bars and  sleek chrome, the dinner is a throwback to the 1940s. I expected it to have been modernized at some time but it still the same. The floor is the same arts and crafts colored tile that was there in the 1970 and there is an amazing amount of lovely wood trim. I felt right at home and enjoyed a cup of  coffee and some good stew.

Well, what do you know. I have rediscovered an old friend and it is only steps away from my office door. Go to Bethesda and eat at the Tastee Diner. Have a cup of coffee and some pie. Soak it up, and for those of you who remember what Bethesda looked like 40 years ago, savor the moment and get a little nostalgic.