Brand new Electric Diner brings the 80s back to Hamilton
- Oluseyi Olomodosi
- 31 Oct 2019
Hamilton business owners Erika Puckering and Jamie Ewing are nostalgic for the days of seeing bicycles on front lawns and finding your friends by knocking on doors instead of texting them. These were the days before technology seemed to take away our ability to connect. Their new restaurant, Electric Diner, is an embodiment of that nostalgia, as well as the warm memories it evokes.
Jamie and Erika have been in the restaurant business for a long time. They are part of a group of local business owners who have taken on the challenge of rejuvenating Hamilton — specifically George Street.
Their first restaurant, Lou Dawg’s Southern BBQ, has seen consistent, steady growth since opening in 2016. Their restaurant, coupled with Moody’s, were the catalyst for rebirthing a restaurant district that runs perpendicular to Hess Village.
Erika Puckering describes Electric Diner as almost serendipitous, the result of a lot of things falling perfectly together at the exact right time. In March 2018, she and Ewing were asked to take on ownership of Sidebar but were hesitant because Erika was pregnant. They were given the opportunity to take it over and maintain it until January, when they would be able to fully take it over and do renovations to make it their own restaurant. They accepted.
Sidebar was known as a quick stop for drinks, so although there was a grill in the kitchen, it was rarely used. The duo decided to develop a burger menu and run it as a popup shop outside of Sidebar in order to test the market. The burgers were a hit. They were so well-received that the Hamilton Ti-Cats asked them to run a pop-up burger shop for their home games at Tim Hortons Field; Electric Burger is now a permanent stand there. As much as they had hoped for success and believed in their ability to succeed, the way things came together so quickly and organically has been a really special experience for them.
Renovations commenced in January, with a clear vision in mind for the space. In addition to selling burgers, the pop-up shops had some breakfast items as well so it was fairly natural for Ewing and Puckering to decide upon a vintage diner feel. Jamie, who is responsible for cooking and menu construction, built a menu that was based on food items from when they were growing up.
A lot of the menu items evoke memories of their childhood experiences. Erika mentions the thrill of Saturdays with cartoons, tomato soup, and grilled cheese. They wanted to keep the nostalgia of simple classic breakfast items like pancakes and french toast while also elevating it to a higher culinary level, so they re-imagined a lot of the items for a more satisfying dining experience. Instead of Campbell’s from a can, the diner makes tomato soup from scratch using high quality ingredients (such as San Marzano tomatoes) so that customers can get both a retro home-style cooking experience and the gourmet restaurant experience in one place.
As Jamie developed the menu and the theme of nostalgia became more and more apparent, the couple took a trip to New York and ate at every diner they could to look for inspiration.
They found that most of the diners that were 50s-themed were built in the 80s which created an interesting dynamic that they liked. They saw an opportunity to do something like that with Electric Diner where the next generation emulates the era they grew up in; a reimagining based on a reimagination.
So far, the most rewarding aspect of their experience since opening has been how good the food is and how well people have received it. Virtually everyone who comes in to eat loves the food and ends up coming back for more – in just a month since their opening they have had multiple customers come back numerous times.
Aside from the food, Erika and Jamie are also very proud of the way the diner ended up looking. The 80s aspect and diner aspect both came together to make a very pleasing aesthetic, right down to the neon signs and jukebox.
Even though they fully believed in their vision, there were still the inevitable nerves about if it would fully realize itself the way they hoped. To see other people fall in love with the finished product, they say, has been incredibly validating.
Being present throughout the whole process and looking back on it is very comforting for them in terms of their long-term outlook. The way that everything seemed to click and fall into place naturally inspires confidence and makes them feel more and more like it was meant to be.
Their current focus is on getting word out about the diner. They know how good their food is and have seen how much customers love it, so they are confident that the business will grow as long as people hear about it. All it takes is a single taste of their food to get hooked.
One of Puckering and Ewing’s big focuses was to ensure the diner was universally approachable so that people can come for more casual meals as well as for more formal occasions. It’s appealing to every age range – people who lived through the 80s diner era can enjoy it for the throwback, while younger people can enjoy it for the retro aesthetic. They have food options for vegetarians and vegans, as well as a highly Instagrammable aesthetic for young people.
While the diner was born out of their own personal nostalgia, the feelings it evokes are highly relatable to just about anyone. In a world that often feels to be moving too fast, where progress often feels like regression, where luxuries such as social media and smartphones and the Internet feel overstimulating and it often feels like everything we gain is at the expense of something else, sometimes we all find ourselves wondering if we’re truly headed in the right direction or if we should take a step back.
Electric Diner speaks to a collective desire to go back to calmer times where we were more connected to ourselves and to each other, a desire that often manifests as nostalgia even for those too young to remember anything before the world as it is today. Electric Diner has the potential to speak to everybody because beyond the good food, beyond the excellent atmosphere and gorgeous aesthetic, they are able to connect you with the idyllic warmth of childhood through every bite.
You can visit Electric Diner at 96 George Street. They open at 8 am every weekday and 10 am on weekends, running until midnight every day, extending to 2 am on Fridays and Saturdays.
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