How Do You Legally Define a Diner?

Guy Fieri hosts a television show about them. Tony Soprano may have been killed in one. Some, but not all, of them are open 24 hours a day. The subject of our conversation is, of course, the humble diner. As someone who came of age in New Jersey, diners have loomed large in my consciousness for many years — but it’s also true that my home state’s diners are facing a bit of an existential crisis.

The headline of a 2025 NJ.com article referred to “New Jersey’s surviving 24-hour diners,” which gives a sense of the issue here: that implies that a lot of other diners haven’t done as well. “In late 2020, in the wake of pandemic-created restaurant closures, we proclaimed the 24-hour Jersey diner was on life support,” wrote Peter Genovese. And while Genoese saw signs for optimism then, the situation for many diners has remained challenging.

That brings us to a recent New York Times article by Claire Fahy on the struggles facing many diners in the Garden State. Fahy cites multiple issues putting the survival of diners in question, including “the weight of geopolitical effects on the economy and the long, Reaper-like grasp of the Covid-19 pandemic.” That has prompted state lawmakers to look into legislative measures to keep an industry inexorably connected to New Jersey afloat.

Those lawmakers’ solution? The Saving Our Diners and Protecting Our Past (SODA POP) Act — something that would give eligible eateries certain tax breaks in the hopes of keeping them around for future generations. But, as Fahy points out, that leads to another big question: how, exactly, do you define a diner? Does it need to be open around the clock to qualify? Must it serve breakfast all day?

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The proposed law would define a diner as “a food establishment that: serves food and beverages to customers primarily for on-site consumption at a booth, table, or counter setting; engages primarily in the preparation and serving of a wide variety of menu offerings, including, but not limited to, hamburgers, salads, sandwiches, soups, breakfast items, entrees, pastries, pies, and beverages.”

This law sould also effectively define a diner as, well, a space that defines itself as a diner. If passed, the law would “only include food establishments that are commonly known and regarded as diners.” That means that it would not cover “any café, delicatessen, tavern, bar, sandwich shop, or other food establishment.” Diners have always been somewhat in the eye of the beholder; if passed, this bill could make that an official policy. Possibly with a side of home fries.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…