The best old school diners I’ve ever experienced are in New Jersey: White Manna, Tick Tock, etc are virtual beacons for the kitsch obsessed–and there taint nothing like them in the Bay area, that’s for sure.
A North Jersey story on the retro-fitting on “28”, a suave Montclair eatery, into the diner-style Raymond’s brought it all back home for a moment.