Diner description

The diner wasn’t retro so much as old. The sign was made of pink, backlit letters across the top reading “Cybill’s Diner.” However, the C burned out long ago. When the new owner bought the building, he learned that the company that made the sign no longer existed, and it was put together in an unconventional way which would require custom restoration work to make the C function again. His solution was to simply climb a ladder himself and disconnect the Y, so that it read “bill’s Diner.” His name wasn’t Bill. The man who lent him the ladder pointed this out, but he simply replied, “yeah, but the customers won’t know that.”

The diner had a row of bar stools facing a wall. According to the owner who was not named Bill, this was probably because there was once a large window here along the wall, but someone had removed it and filled in the wall, possibly for security reasons, or perhaps in a misguided attempt to make the place seem cozy. It just made it dark.

The diner was practically a hallway, with booths lined against the wall opposite the barstools. They were small, such that only two skinny people could fit on each side, unless they were exceedingly comfortable with each other. The booth tabletops were also small, so that two people sitting across from each other were at a close, almost intimate conversational distance.

The floor was a grid of large stone squares, which alternated black and gray in a checkered pattern.

There was an antique cash register, which wasn’t used, and a low hanging ceiling fan, which didn’t spin. Pipes from the radiator ran along the walls.