Plato's Diner, College Park, Md.

Kevin made me go up to College Park tonight to join him for dinner. He's still in the midst of grading his papers at the university there and needed a break, but not so long of a break as it would take to come down into the District. He met me at the Metro stop and we drove to the nearby Plato's Diner for our meal. The town was interestingly quiet, as students are finishing up finals there.

Plato's is one of the few places to eat in College Park. Obviously, Kevin goes there way too much, because when we walked in, it seemed as though the entire staff knew him! We were escorted to a nice corner booth and soon were greeted by our very chatty waitress.

Kevin had his usual food there, a big Greek salad. As with many of the diners and "home cooking" casual restaurants in the metropolitan area, Plato's is owned by a Greek family.


I ordered the North Carolina pulled pork platter. The waitress soon came back to tell us they were out of pork. So, I decided to get the roast turkey platter. They were out of that, too. So, I decided to get the white lasagna [sic]. And, they were out of that, too. So, I just got a patty melt and fries. They had that. And it was good.....though I was still a little disappointed I couldn't get one of the blue plates I wanted.


One of the highlights of Plato's is their dessert selection. Large refrigerated cases are near the entry, warning customers to save room for the enticing confections. Forgoing my usual preference for cream pies and fruit cobblers, I went for flash and got the strawberry cake, a big slice of three-layer white cake with sliced strawberries in between the layers, frosted with thick walls of meringue icing, and topped with a great big, ripe, red strawberry enrobed in some strawberry glaze. Kevin had his usual, a nice looking slice of apple pie.



Now, Kevin's back at his work, "bleeding" all over his students's essays......or at least he's supposed to be, if he didn't go home and fall asleep after all that dinner!