There is nothing wrong with talented chefs like J.P. Samuelson at jP American Bistro turning out dishes like roast chicken breast with fermented black bean sauce and mango salad and calling it American cuisine. And Doug Flicker has every right to offer duck breast with prune ravioli, asparagus, and portobello mushrooms at Mission American Kitchen. But if you want to taste American cooking the way it was B.C., you have to go to a diner.

B.C. means Before Child, as in Julia. She swept across the American landscape like a gastronomic tornado, starting in the early ’60s, and almost completely wiped out a venerable dining tradition. Nowadays it’s hard to find a menu that doesn’t offer deep-fried calamari or seared ahi tuna with ginger wasabi dipping sauce, but you’ll have to search far and wide to find a good old-fashioned chicken salad sandwich or Midwestern hotdish.

Though there are some things that good diners have always done well, like hash browns and pancakes, there is no need to get too nostalgic about this bygone era—the truth is, most American food B.C. wasn’t very good. We were at the height of a convenience-foods craze when Julia burst on the scene, and the signature dish of the American diner in those days was a can of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. Now the best of the new generation of diners offers an expanded repertoire, often using local ingredients, as well as more imaginative preparations—all without losing sight of the core value of traditional diners: unfussy fare at reasonable prices.

You can break the contemporary American diner scene down into three basic categories: the true classics, like Mickey’s Diner, the Band Box, Our Kitchen, and the Ideal Diner, which continue to serve exactly the same grub they did two generations ago; the updated diners, like the Modern Café, the Colossal Café, and the Town Talk Diner, where new owners have preserved the historic décor, but offer updated menus (as well as wine and beer, or even a full bar); and, finally, the new retro diners, like the Edina/Longfellow/Highland Grills, which pay homage to the diner tradition with menus that combine old and new.

The original diners were inspired by railroad dining cars, with a long counter and booth seating, but the concept, and the design, have evolved over the years. The early diners were America’s first fast food restaurants, decades before the Golden Arches arrived on the scene in 1955. With limited seating and tiny kitchens, the short-order cook had to get the food out, well, in short order—and the customers, too. In the ’80s, the Frogtown Diner in St. Paul captured the hurry-up attitude with the motto “Eat It, Then Beat It!”

If you stretch the definition of a diner a bit, you can include landmarks like Peter’s Grill, which opened in 1914 and is the oldest restaurant still operating in Minneapolis. It has a long curved counter and plenty of booths, but a more extensive menu than the typical diner. Among its specialties are American classics that have largely disappeared, such as the Tuesday specials: a chicken patty with cream sauce and fresh peas, or grilled beef liver with bacon.

The ultimate classic diner is Mickey’s in downtown St. Paul, built in a factory in New Jersey and shipped by rail to Minnesota. The first Mickey’s Diner opened in 1939 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (There are two other locations in St. Paul, although they have different owners.) You’ll walk out of Mickey’s smelling like a hamburger and French fries, but it’s worth it—this is traditional diner cooking at its best. Their basic cheese omelet is almost as light and airy as a soufflé—maybe because they whip the eggs in a malt blender, and fry them up in what looks like about half a cup of butter. And the hash browns, fried on the griddle, combine crisp and tender in savory perfection.

The Band Box opened that same year just outside downtown Minneapolis, and is enough of a neighborhood institution—and landmark—that its 2003 renovation was supported by Elliot Park neighborhood revitalization funds. It’s got a classic red-and-white color scheme, a standard eggs-pancakes-and-sandwiches menu, and a friendly neighborhood vibe. Although the Band Box Diner’s motto is “Turning Grease Into a Feast For Over 60 Years!” neither my juicy mushroom Swiss burger nor my side of fries was actually very greasy.

Something about the Ideal Diner brings Lake Wobegon to mind. It’s a place that, to paraphrase Garrison Keillor, “time forgot and the decades cannot improve.” That could almost be its motto, except it already has a better one: “Where Regular People Feel Special, and Special People Feel Regular.” My deep-fried pork tenderloin sandwich was more regular than special, but the accompanying hash browns were terrific. And the daily special, billed as goulash, turned out to be classic Minnesota hotdish: elbow macaroni, ground beef, and tomato sauce, untainted by any detectable spice or seasoning.

I’m still a little nostalgic for the days when the wisecracking Link sisters ran the Town Talk Diner, dishing out $1.99 breakfast specials (one egg, hash browns, toast, and orange juice) with a heaping helping of snappy repartee on the side. These days the owners are a hip trio of guys whose restaurant résumés include Aquavit and Cosmos. The result isn’t so much a diner as a theme restaurant with a retro diner motif—and great food. You can still get pancakes at the Town Talk, and burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches, but the high end of the menu offers more gastronomic flair: roast breast of chicken over sautéed escarole with sweet corn flan, or lamb braised with sumac, quinoa, and cucumber tabouli. Prices overall are way out of the traditional range, and the decibel level can get painfully high, but it’s definitely become the happening place to be since opening in February 2006.

The original ’40s malt shop décor from the old Rabatin’s Café is still intact at the Modern Café, and although the menu has mostly gone upscale, the friendly feel of a neighborhood diner remains. You can still get a burger or meat loaf for lunch, or the café’s signature dish, pot roast with mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and horseradish sauce. But chef Phillip Becht, whose cuisine draws heavily on locally and sustainably produced foods, really shines with more delicate and subtle dishes like a chilled mango and melon purée with orange-almond biscotti and basil oil, or a meal-sized soup of langoustine-and-sweet-corn dumplings (think won tons) in an intensely flavorful mushroom broth laced with truffle oil.

The Colossal Café’s name is a joke—the South Minneapolis storefront only seats about sixteen customers indoors and a few more out front, weather permitting. But chef-owner Bess Giannakakis is serious about her food, billed as “American scratch cooking with a European twist.” The menu offers a good variety of breakfast sandwiches served on a homemade biscuit or a “flapper” (a yeast-based pancake), as well as omelets, a frittata, and a handful of salads and sandwiches. It’s simple, but several notches above the usual diner fare: the pork sandwich, for example, is marinated in lemon, white wine, olive oil, and fresh herbs, and served on a baguette with tomatoes, greens, and rosemary aioli. The Colossal is open Wednesday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., but Giannakakis also offers a daily takeout dinner special: spinach pie on Wednesdays, salmon cakes on Thursdays, and chicken pot pie on Saturdays.

The Blueplate Restaurant Company bills its three restaurants as “urban diners,” and though they’ve taken the concept a long ways from its origins, the label still fits. The company started with the Highland Grill in St. Paul in the early ’90s and has expanded to include the Longfellow Grill in Minneapolis, the Edina Grill at 50th and France, and the Groveland Tap, a neighborhood bar with a more limited menu.

The Highland Grill always did offer a more varied menu than the typical neighborhood café, but has become even more eclectic over the years. There’s a lot of overlap among the menus, and all three Grills offer a terrific breakfast selection, ranging from waffles and huevos rancheros to a heart-stopping crab cake Benedict. But each dinner menu offers unique entrées that take the concept of diner food into unexplored territory: Moroccan lamb stew at the Highland; serrano ham-wrapped salmon at the Longfellow; seafood stew and seafood mac and cheese in Edina. Do those qualify as diner fare? I think so; the ingredients may be more exotic, but the preparations are still pretty simple, service is fast, and prices are reasonable—all three Grills offer entrées for under $12.

Band Box Diner, 729 S. Tenth St., Minneapolis; 612-332-0850

Colossal Café, 1839 E. 42nd St., Minneapolis; 612-729-2377

Edina Grill, 5028 France Ave. S., Edina; 952-927-7933; www.edinagrill.com [7]

Highland Grill, 771 Cleveland Ave. S., St. Paul; 651-690-1173; www.highlandgrill.com [8]

Ideal Diner, 1314 Central Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-789-7630

Longfellow Grill, 2990 W. River Parkway, Minneapolis; 612-721-2711; www.longfellowgrill.com [9]

Mickey’s Diner, 36 W. Seventh St., St. Paul; 651- 222-5633;
686 Lexington Parkway S., St. Paul; 651-698-0259;
1950 W. Seventh St., St. Paul; 651-698-8387

Modern Café, 337 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-378-9882; www.moderncafeminneapolis.com [10]

Peter’s Grill, 114 S. Eighth St., Minneapolis; 612-333-1981; www.petersgrill.com [11]

Town Talk Diner, 2702 1/2 E. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-722-1312; www.towntalkdiner.com [12]