Event Details
This event will take place in-person at the Woodridge Main Library
No registration required!
“Stories
from New Jersey Diners,” published in 2019 by The History Press, is the newest
book by Garden State author Michael C. Gabriele. For more than 100 years diners
have played an important role in New Jersey’s history as gathering places for a
community. Diner experiences—good food, slice-of-life encounters with friends
and strangers, and the memories they inspire—reflect the state’s spirit,
culture and mythology.
All participants will have the chance to enter into a raffle to win a gift card to the Reo Diner! The Reo Diner has graciously donated gift cards for this raffle.
The book (190 pages and over 80 photos, including a 16-page color insert)
documents stories gathered throughout the “Diner Capital of the World.” These
are heartfelt remembrances that have shaped lives, families, careers, businesses,
and communities—the “untold” stories of New Jersey’s history. Many tales are
snapshots of the immigrant experience—people who have traveled to New Jersey
from far-away countries to gain a foothold as American citizens.
Chapters in the book include memories of late-night eats during Wildwood’s wild
rock-and-roll days of the 1950s; an entrepreneur who traveled eight-thousand
miles from India and opened a diner in the Pine Barrens; first-person
remembrances from Newark’s famous, long-gone Weequahic Diner; and a frantic,
impromptu midnight wedding ceremony held in an Elizabeth lunch wagon in 1906.
This is Gabriele’s fourth book on New Jersey history, and second book about the
Garden State’s diner business, all published by Arcadia Publishing/The History
Press (website: www.arcadiapublishing.com/The-History-Press). His previous
books are (in chronological order): “The Golden Age of Bicycle Racing in New
Jersey;” “The History of Diners in New Jersey;” and “New Jersey Folk Revival
Music—History and Tradition.”
A lifelong Garden State resident, Gabriele is a 1975 graduate of Montclair
State University and has worked as a journalist, freelance writer and author
for more than 40 years. He’s a member of the executive boards of Allied Artists
of America, New York, the New Jersey Folk Festival at Rutgers University, the
Nutley Historical Society, the Theater League of Clifton, and serves on the
advisory board of the Clifton Arts Center. Gabriele writes an occasional diner
blog for the website “Jersey Bites (https://jerseybites.com), A Quest for Food
with Attitude.”
Event Type(s): Presentation / Lecture
Age Group(s): Adults (18+)