CONSTELLATIONS // Meet Me at ‘The Car’: A Philadelphia fooderie as American as apple (walnut) pie

by Diana Lu

EXCERPT //

“For 60 years, in the good and the tough times, families in Northeast Philly have been linked to the Dining Car. ‘Pretty much if you’ve lived in the neighborhood, your aunts, parents, uncles have worked here,’ explains Nancy Morozin, who runs the diner with siblings Judy and Joe Jr. 

Philadelphia has changed and grown since their father, Joe Morozin Sr., opened the stainless steel institution on Frankford Avenue in 1960. At the border of a blue county in a swing state, the Northeast blurs with the suburbs and the city. The opportunities and jobs are porous, and local leaders are gatekeepers who draw attention from politicians seeking to tip a critical voter base. ...

The very survival of the Dining Car, the last original family-owned and operated diner in Philadelphia, is comforting. Several staff have worked at the diner for decades, watching customers who once cried in the booths as children grow up and bring their own kids. Executive Chef Larry Thum started as a dishwasher in 1975. 

In moments of panic and uncertainty, people find themselves back at the Dining Car. ‘On September 11, everybody piled here,’ Morozin tells me. ‘Center City emptied out, but people didn’t want to go home. They all came here because this is where their friends and parents worked. Everybody’s kids and grandkids left school and work and came here. [People] weren’t even eating, [they] just sat and had coffee and got their heads together.’ ...

When they opened at limited capacity during the early part of the pandemic, the Morozins transformed their parking lot into an open-air café and music space. Each table gets its own 10x10, eight feet apart, and the sandbags are decorated with flowers. They brought back their piano player from 15 years ago, when they used to have a piano, and a local guitarist and singer/songwriter frequents Saturday nights. Don’t want to pay for food? They invite you to BYO chair and sing along. ‘Customers feel better about seeing people they care about,’ Morozin says.”

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