I'll have the moons, please
Just got back from dropping a friend off at the airport. We stopped at Denny's (Lenny's?) on the way and had some breakfast. I love Denny's (Lenny's?). I love the idea of having anything off the menu at any time of the day. You want a burger at breakfast? We can do that. You want eggs at 6 PM? We can do that. You want to be under 21 and be drunk and be a bunch of drunk, obnoxious high schoolers and sit two tables away from the off-duty cop? Well, it's not on the menu, but we can do that. (That last one is something I've observed far less than I've actually done)
I've been a fan of Denny's (Lenny's?) for years, as you can probably tell if you can remember back to the Lenny's? ad campaign (funny side note - one of the reasons that ad sticks in my mind so many years after running is that we actually had a Lenny's Diner in our area). It's my favorite driving across the country restaurant. Whenever I go TDY to an area, I have to find out where the nearest Denny's is. I mean, you never know when your going to be struck with the urge for Moons Over My Haiti (yeah, I know that's not the real name, but it's how I order - more on that in a later paragraph) at 2 AM. So, it's best to be prepared. I know a lot of people don't really care for Denny's. They say that they'd rather go to IHOP or Wags or Waffle House or Zippy's. Well, I don't have too much of a problem with any of those places, but to me, they just don't compare to Denny's. And I don't think any of them are as widespread. Sure, some of them are all over the country, but I think Denny's has them by sheer numbers.
Denny's was a hot late night spot for sobering up after a long night of under age drinking.
I have a quick confession to make - Mom, I drank before I turned 21. What's that? You knew? You mean you could see through my graceful stumblings? The large wads of Big Red gum didn't cover the smell? Wow, you sure are sharper than I gave you credit for back then.
OK, back to sobering up at Denny's - We used to go into Denny's in groups. Sometimes groups large enough to need two tables. We'd generally act like a$$es the entire time we were there - I remember the pancake frisbee incident quite clearly. Another night, I kept telling my waitress that I needed a fork. Every time she brought one, I'd secretly bend it and hide it under our booth. We also did the tip in an upside down glass of water trick. That one was always good for a laugh or two. On the way out, I always took the advice of some forgotten stand up comic and asked of a job application. They usually told me they were out.
When I was in Hawaii, I had a friend that I'd go to Denny's with regularly. Sometimes, we'd go in the middle of the night and hang out there until we had to leave to go to PT in the morning. It was nice to be young and never need to sleep. We went so often, we knew most of the night crews' names and they knew ours. We both got deployed to Haiti in 95 and we'd often talk about going to Denny's when we got back - this is where Moons Over My Hammy became Moons Over My Haiti). We talked about going to Denny's so much that we got people to believe there was a Denny's in Port Au Prince! When we got back, we partially unpacked our bags, drank some of the beer my team bought for us, and talked a guy from down the hall into driving us to Denny's. We spent more than 12 hours there and went through two waitresses before we left!
There used to be a few Denny's in Korea. I knew where the four in Seoul were. But they shut down in early 97. I think the moment I found out that the Denny's were all gone may be one of the saddest moments I've ever had in Korea. It was a big deal to me. There was something really cool about having a Denn's there - even more so than any of the other American restaurants that are there. Even if it wasn't open 24/7 and didn't have an open menu all day long. I remember the first time I ate in a Denny's in Korea. There was a Denny's soundtrack playing - songs and Denny's ads, and I distinctly remember hearing in one of the ads that you could order anything at any time, right after the waitress had told me that I could only have lunch at lunch time. HAHA!
The Denny's we went to this morning was pretty quiet. There were only about half a dozen customers in it when we walked in. It was 4 AM, so the lack of people was probably a combination of this Denny's being farther from most of the late night clubs in Monterey and being after many of the club goers had already come and gone. It was nice because I got my coffee right away and our food was out quickly. There was a drunk guy at the counter (isn't there always?) but he was quietly being a harmless nuisance. And when he left, he didn't stumble out to the parking lot and instead crossed the street, heading in the direction of the adult book store - nothing like some early morning, still drunk after eating porn browsing I guess, but at least he wasn't driving.