Now known as just The White Diamond, but glad to see it’s still open. In the 1970s and 80s, square burgers, smaller than a compact disc, sizzled on the flattop as pieces of onion slipped into the grease. Even with hundreds of diners dotting the Garden State landscape, there was no better late-night buzzed munchie stop.
They had a Pepsi fountain but once I saw the fat, ice cold glass bottles of Yoo-Hoo, my drink choice was made. The burger was no longer small and square but was wrapped in paper. It was freezing, so I ate in the car, in the lot the Diamond shares with a Goodyear Tire and Rubber. No better burger has ever been consumed in the shadow of hydraulic lifts.
In the early 1980s, late on Saturday nights, a heavy guy sold the early edition of the Sunday Newark Star Ledger out of a white van in the Diamond’s parking lot. My dad would go to get the paper but come back with an oily sack of burgers and fries, and hot cherry pies, baked into small, circular aluminum pans. Always made it worthwhile to lurk around the kitchen late on a Saturday night and wait to hear the rustle of paper sacks come through the front door.
If you’re ever near Exit 135 on the Garden State Parkway, pull off. The Clark White Diamond is never that far away.
