This article was in last weekends journal about my aunt and uncles diner!

MY WORLD: Nothing finer than a good local diner

By Karen Diekamp HitchcockSaturday, February 21, 2009 3:13 AM CST

Sometimes you have to look no farther than almost your own back yard to find a little adventure and a good piece of pie.Valentine's Day dawned like any other Saturday at our house, which meant that Hubby was up early to fix his coffee and I was putting pillows on my head in bed upstairs trying to drown out the sound of grinding coffee beans.It is always a competition between Hubby and the local birds as to who gets up the earliest. Usually, Hubby wins.After waiting a few hours to see if breakfast in bed would be my Valentine treat (no such luck), I finally dragged myself out of bed to see what the day would bring. Surely my better half had planned a special day for us.He had indeed. He pronounced he was going to work in the yard.


I'll skip over a recitation of how many tree branches he cleaned up, and how much he complained about his sore muscles after, and get to the good part. The part with the pie.After running an errand on Elm Street in St. Charles, we decided to drive up Kingshighway, not a side of town in which we usually find ourselves. It's a perfectly nice part of town, but we just don't usually have business to do there. It turned out to be a serendipitous change in routine.As we got near Lindenwood University, we saw a quaint little place called Allin's Diner. The word "diner" hooked me. I yelled quickly at Hubby to turn into the parking lot.I love diners. I love the sleek, '50s, "Happy Days" kind of ambience. I love the smell of burgers and the cozy small-town feel.This place has all that, plus a friendly owner named Dave Allin. It turns out this little gem of a place is going on its fourth year, and has a lot of lucky regulars who discovered this place a long time before we did. Their pictures line the walls. It seems one of the waitresses also is a photographer, and she snaps customers' pictures every Wednesday. I spied a certain St. Charles mayor's photo up there (I guess she likes good hot wings, too).Hubby and I had a very nice waitress named Jessie, who recommended her favorites, but I'd already decided to have a cheeseburger (Hubby had a Reuben). I am a connoisseur of cheeseburgers, and this one didn't disappoint. It was big, sloppy and juicy, just like Mom used to make, and served on ciabatta bread, which made it even more texture-filled and delicious.I made a mental note to come back to try other things on the menu, like the meatball-ziti soup, the meatloaf and the smoked hot wings.We were inspecting the whimsical little silver-framed fun facts on each table (sayings like "The Statue of Liberty wears a size 879 sandal") when a piece of coconut cream pie appeared before our eyes."Compliments of the owner," Jessie said.Oh my, happy Valentine's Day to me!The owner appeared shortly thereafter to see how everything was. He shared his food philosophy with us. "Food is fun," he said simply.I asked him how he got started in the food business."I drove past this place 25 years ago and told my wife, 'I'm going to open a restaurant there someday,'" he explained.Her response: "You're crazy!" But she did encourage him to go to school, so he enrolled in the culinary arts program at Forest Park College. He also kept an eye out during the next 25 years for his dream location to come up for sale. His dream came true several years ago.Allin has had a lot of other careers - over-the-road truck driver, warehouse worker, forklift driver - but food always has been his passion. He might have picked up a few pointers from his grandma, mom and wife Vicki, all excellent cooks he says, but he also honed his skills at a local country club and Lindenwood University.Now he's his own boss, and he has high standards. I could tell as he described the ingredients of the coconut cream pie that here was a chef who didn't cut corners."It's real food," he summarized. "Nobody's doing what I'm doing."His regulars will testify to that. Jim Tyrell, formerly of Chicago, discovered that when he found his way to Allin's Diner a couple of years ago."He hooked me with his pancakes and keeps me with his wings," Tyrell joked as he and a pal played cards at the counter.Allin's Diner, 130 N. Kingshighway, is open 6 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 a.m.-2 p.m. on weekends, but is starting to be open certain nights for dinner. For more information, call 636-946-5556.Karen Diekamp Hitchcock of St. Charles is a medical secretary who writes a semimonthly column for the Journal. She can be reached at kdhitch1@hotmail.com