In the Neighborhood: Delicious, Locally-Sourced Diner Food

I hadn't been to the Silver Diner in quite a while (several years, probably), but I went for breakfast yesterday, and I was incredibly impressed.  Silver Diner is a small diner chain that can be found in Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey.  I had always found them to be a great option for diner food - much better quality than the bigger chains - but this most recent trip really blew the "diner" concept out of the water. 

Silver Diner has started vigorously promoting the fact that they source local ingredients (I'm not sure whether they were locally sourcing before the big advertising campaign), and they have really proven that delicious, locally-source food can be sold at reasonable prices.  Often, the restaurants that loudly tout their local sourcing charge a huge premium, but Silver Diner proves that does not have to be the case.  The entryway features several boards that list the sources of various ingredients as well as special locally-focused dishes.  The menu also does a good job of highlighting local options (as well as healthier options). 

The menu features a huge range of dishes (several pages worth!), but of course...the breakfast options are the way to go, in my opinion.  I had the veggie scramble, which provides quite the smorgasbord - scrambled eggs loaded with vegetables, strawberries with a delicious cinnamon-sour cream sauce (it sounds weird, but oh my word it is delicious), and pancakes.  The most popular dish at our table was definitely the pecan sweet potato pancakes (again, it sounds weird, but they were SO GOOD!), which came with grilled bananas and the fantastic strawberries and sauce.  The menu options are plentiful, and feature some fun and inventive twists on traditional diner dishes.

The line when you arrive may look intimidating, but Silver Diner does an incredible job of keeping things moving (and yet, you don't feel rushed once you sit down).  It is definitely worth the wait, and provides an incredible example for other restaurants that want to combine great taste, local sourcing, and reasonable prices.