AUTOMOBILIA: Galaxie Diner

This is as far from an authentic ’50s diner as you can get. A new building in the suburbs of Woodbridge with no connection to the past at all. But the food at the Galaxie Diner is good and cheap, so it’s worth stopping by.

It’s unclear whether the name is a throw-back to mid-century obsession with the space-age, or the full-size Ford Galaxie sedan that debuted in 1959. Either way, this place has all the right components that make a great diner; cheap breakfast specials, seating for 100, and corned beef hash.

Inside the diner there’s reproduction service station signs giving the place a ‘motoring’ vibe, but the murals of movie stars from the ‘golden age’ are unrecognizable, even to an aficionado. But the vinyl on the seats of the generous booths is authentic, and the table tops will remind you of grandma’s kitchen when you were a kid.

Parking a retro Japanese GT car like the 1992 Subaru SVX seemed almost sacrilegious. These diners are all about vintage American iron; turnpike cruisers and boulevard bruisers. Sadly, anti-Japanese sentiment was still very strong in America during this era; folks couldn’t appreciate a JDM masterpiece from the far east.

Clearly, the guys at Hwy 11 Cruisers don’t see anything wrong with a reproduction diner. Half the body panels on the cars they show off here are reproductios too, so why be a stickler about originality. Every Friday night in the summer, American muscle cars and classic s pack the ample parking lot on Hwy 7 near Pine Valley Rd in Woodbridge. If there’s one good thing about the suburbs, there’s certainly plenty of parking!

Anyone driving a Corvettes, C-10 pickup, hot-rod or Olds 442 is welcomed here. The only negative about these ‘old timers’ meets is how exclusionary they are. A car that’s just too new, or too ‘foreign’ looking will often be asked to park on the edge of the meet (or next door).