Cooperstown Diner — Restaurant in Town of Otsego

Returning to Cooperstown for the 3rd time we were so excited to visit our beloved Cooperstown Diner and get a few breakfasts there this week. We made 3 visits and short of the young man who wears a knit cap this has clearly bottomed out. The 1st visit went ok but my omelet wasn't that good honestly. Visit 2 found the place a disaster and only an older somewhat disinterested gentleman seemingly in charge of doing everything which probably wasn't a good idea. We even considered cleaning some tables for him just to reduce our anxiety! The not being offered coffee or service thing others mentioned in other reviews is a recurring theme apparently and probably needs to be addressed.

Speaking of coffee...what happened to the coffee? It's God awful and weak! A piece of advice an old diner owner once offered a diner owning friend..."Give people a great cup of coffee and they'll forget most of what they didn't like about your place! Costs you pennies to make a good one and rewards surpass the investment!"

The young man with the hat arrived after the fact and salvaged the visit.

Visit 3...ugh...people being served before us (we must look like we can't afford to eat there?) my pancakes were metallic tasting (the waitress cut something off the bill). No replacement anything was offered which honestly would've made me forget this ever happened!

A major plus however for once my wife got 3 pretty good meals (well she got the Diner Egg Muffin twice...hard to mess that up!) and it's usually her that gets the bad ones!

We were sad that this place seems to have hit the skids. In the nicest small town we know and considered at one point living in, this little piece of Mayberry like dining has sadly gone the way of the rest of Americana. If it can happen here there's little hope for good...

Small buildings for small towns.

Recommended by other Yelpers, we found ourselves enjoying an early Sunday morning breakfast at The Cooperstown Diner amongst many town locals, none of which seemed under 55, but that just made it all the more interesting. You step into the little dinner whose address has a 1/2 in it as it is about the size of a 25'x25' room with a couple small tables to the left and a small counter to sit at on the right. I would guess that the place could only seat about 35 people at a time, which makes for a very intimate diner experience.

Service is quick and simple as they was just one server and probably only one cook in the back but none the less a simple breakfast that was unique to our Cooperstown experience. Much like many Jersey diners, you have a plethora of options to order from and as we were planning a drinking day to follow, kept it light with some eggs, toast, and home fires. Each was delectable, though I was expecting more of a hash brown type home fries when really it was just diced up red potatoes fried up. They were good, just not what I expected. Conversations from other tables could be easily heard amongst the crowd which makes for some interesting ease dropping before we left.

When all is said and done, it certainly was a different diner experience, one that you should try if you have a minute in town and happen to get in while there's room. We noticed as we came out a few people waiting in the rain to get in though there are more commercial establishments for breakfast nearby if you're not the...

My wife and I walked in, wanting to try breakfast at this small local diner. The place was packed, must be good! We sat at the bar/counter and waited. And waited. And waited. A customer flagged down an employee for us, and the employee said “”I can’t help them, I’m too busy, I do t want to burn everyone’s breakfast!” Ok, I get it. So we wait. And wait. Same customer flags down the other (yes, only 2) employee, and he takes our order. And we waited. And waited. I finally flagged the fella down and asked for my coffee and my wife’s water. In the meantime, another customer came in and sat next to me. The original employee came right out and took this customer's order before ours was taken. Finally, (most of) our breakfasts arrived. The toaster was apparently on the fritz, so we were waiting for another order of toast. The “toast” we got was practically just white bread. I dug in to the potatoes on my plate, and they were ok. My wife’s potatoes were barely cooked. My wife’s scrambled eggs were runny. She was not about to eat. I started to cut into my ham, and found a short, wavy hair on my plate. I called the fella back over and explained that we were all set, we were not going to eat and we didn’t need anything remade. I offered to pay for my coffee (which I had only half drank), and the fella apologized that we had had that experience. We left hungry and disappointed in the service and the food. It was unfortunate, and we likely will not try this...