The Fountain Restaurant — Restaurant in Celina

You walk in to see a counter with seating for four people, high back, swivel chairs. There’s a diner menu letter board up on the wall, yellow with age, announcing the flavors of milkshakes and ice cream. It’s from the 60s and probably hasn’t changed since they put it up 65 years ago. There’s a whiteboard on the back wall with the special for the day written out. Bacon egg and cheese omelette or a sausage egg and cheese sandwich on toast. Five dollars.

The kind of place with a few locals sitting at a booth having their morning coffee, one of the waitresses offering Jim the last donut because they know he will want it. He accepts it.

This is, in my mind, a classic American small town diner. The kind of place I grew up, eating in my hometown of 500 people. It’s not high cuisine, there’s nothing fancy about the food although I did come across a few things I had never seen before on the menu. Fried mush. Meat grits specials, like the scuttle butt and the chili Bob. An age old, but perfected recipe of eggs, meat, cheese, and a starch either potatoes ( homefries) or toast.

The coffee is weak and not much flavor to it but, to be honest, it’s exactly what you would expect in a place like this and there’s something comforting about that. Honest, simple food made day and a day out, catering to the local crowd and a few roadway, travelers like myself who happen to come across it.

There’s a certain charm and depth to places like this that have been lived in day and day out by the same people for decades. For those like up rounded, there’s the nostalgia and connection to the many other people having the same experience day after day in communities across the United States.

Forgive me if I wax nostalgia can get a little sentimental here, but this morning‘s dining experience definitely elicited that for me. I hope you can find your own version of this sometime today or in the...

A mom & Pop style diner. They are only open in mornings and afternoons. Their food is pretty average but they have really cheap prices which is a plus! I would say that their food is actuslly pretty good for what you pay. You are not going to get any extra thrills here, but it is the type of place where if you come regularly, the same employees always working will learn your name! The main thing I would improve if I owned it, is their coffee. It is not very good for being a breakfast place. But that is me being picky, I...

While the landscape of America continues to change along with the bygone era of small diners, The Fountain has weathered the storm. There’s nothing like a piece of history still going strong in a small town, where fewer rapid changes happen to swallow mom-and-pop joints. One thing about The Fountain that shines is how the staff remembers names. It’s what makes customers friends. I tried their “Billy Bob” and several other menu items. I’ve been back several times. I’d come here before choosing a chain restaurant, any day!...