Places like the Daybreak Diner are getting harder to find. Part of the reason is that a new place can’t recreate the timeworn atmosphere of a place that’s been slinging hash for decades.
Daybreak has been in its current location, a corner spot in a strip mall at Curry Ford Road and Crystal Lake Drive, since about 2005. When it first opened, in 1997, it was down the street in the space currently occupied by Los Generales Mexican restaurant. When another restaurant, B&B, announced it was getting out of the diner business, Daybreak’s owners grabbed the opportunity to move to the larger space.
But even though Daybreak Diner has been around for so long, and in a location that’s close enough that I could probably walk there, I hadn’t been back for many many years. I corrected that by meeting friends there for breakfast recently, and I felt as though I’d gone back in time.
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