Comfort food with a side of history at the Lincoln Street Diner

Ithaca has an embarrassment of riches in the diner department, and this week we're in the Fall Creek neighbourhood visiting the Lincoln Street Diner. With breakfast and lunch Monday through Saturday, it's a perfect place for a quick but hot lunch on a cold day, or an early-morning breakfast. The Lincoln Street Diner used to be Bud's Diner and Ziffy's, and it's been in Fall Creek for 45 years.

Breakfast could be blueberry pancakes, a spinach and feta omelet, or an occasional special, Cajun sausage gravy over biscuits, maybe with a side of cheddar grits.

In fact, sausage gravy is a fixture here at the Lincoln Street Diner; the "daily breakfast special" is home fries and corn bread topped with sausage gravy. Who could ask for anything more? Well, I'll come clean and admit that I usually add a pair of eggs over easy to this dish, just for the sake of completeness.

There's always an inexpensive breakfast sandwich option, a filling meal wedged between two halves of an English muffin, and lots of fresh coffee is brewing non-stop.

At lunchtime, try a turkey club sandwich or a reuben, or a one-third pound burger. All of the burgers and sandwiches come with chips and a pickle, or you can add a side of hot and crisp fries for a little more.

There are better burgers in Ithaca, but I'd call this the best of the diner burgers. Of course the options include a Tullyburger, the local specialty with raw onion, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Or, you can go all out with a Bo-Burger, that wince-inducing delicacy, a cheeseburger topped with a fried egg.

I've enjoyed the frequent lunch specials like fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, or scalloped potatoes with ham. Don't forget about the soup of the day, like the excellent bean and ham soup, or the potato bacon cheddar. Either one can turn a sandwich into a hot, comfort-food experience, perfect for a December afternoon.

The Lincoln Street Diner isn't open 24 hours a day as many diners are, but they pack plenty of diner atmosphere into the hours they're open. In addition to the breakfast and lunch, stop down some Friday evening for their fresh fish fry. (They won't be open the Friday evenings following Christmas and New Year's Day.)

You can spend as little as three or four bucks on breakfast, or five to ten on a complete meal. Find the Lincoln Street Diner at 309 East Lincoln Street, right near the north end of North Aurora Street and just a couple of blocks from the Ithaca Falls. Call 607-216-1616 or visit lincolnstreetdiner.com and tell them you heard about them here.