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| - Black Bear Diner is the epitome of what America is today: obese, gluttonous and having a deadly fear of anything that even sounds like exercise. Go in and count the number of men in there with a 36 inch waist or less ... you MIGHT make it to the end of the fingers on your first hand (and let's not talk about the Wagnerian-built female patrons! "Rubenesque" would be a kind description).
Now, the restaurant itself: if you can sneak in there without your fitness trainer seeing you do so, Black Bear Diner is THE place to drown in comfort food. The cooks in Goodyear have recently been replaced, or must have been, because the Reuben, for example, no longer drips in grease on your plate. The food is almost always good and the women who wait on the customers undertipped, underpaid and underappreciated (believe me: they deserve to be tipped well beyond the 15% standard ... especially as meals are pretty cheap here and the bill will be small). Whether the management knows how to hire or the girls just bust their tails, because they're afraid one of the patrons will roll on top of them if service is too slow, I don't know. My favorites: the fried chicken, the aptly named Volcano (pancakes, sausage, eggs, etc.), which will cause your blood sugar to erupt like one; their Reubens, Club sandwiches ... they're all good: you can't go wrong.
Beware Sunday mornings, when well-dressed Church goers mob the place as well as Fridays, when they have their all you can eat fish fry. And just in case you really were able to find pants with elastic waistlines, don't forget the cream pie desserts.
In summary, while the food is far from gourmet, it's usually quite tasty, comes in large quantities and will leave you full for a long time afterwards.
I recently returned to Black Bear Diner after a 3 year absence, because I was in the mood for a sinfully caloric breakfast. The waitresses had no problem recognizing my rotund figure, even though I had lost 40 pounds in my absence replacing Volcanoes and Club Sandwiches with exercise and a moderate diet. After telling me how wonderful I looked, one of them asked me how I did it.
"Simple," I replied. "I stayed away from here."
Black Bear Diner - it's what America's all about.
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