The Young and The Restless | Dine back in time

It’s only open weekdays until 2pm, so unless we wag work and school, visits have to wait until holidays.

Those with multiple teenagers will know co-ordinating times for whole family outings isn’t as easy as it once was.

I have two who are working casual jobs now and they’re rarely rostered at the same times.

The other one thinks holidays are a green light to stay up all night and sleep all day, so if we want to see him before lunch we have to give him a good reason to get up.

Like the promise of a burger and a shake, for instance.

I scored a rare weekday off after working a weekend, so we had an opportunity.

We compromised and decided to leave town by 10.30am, despite my youngest wanting to sleep all morning, so we could make our meal brunch instead of lunch and get back in time for my oldest to start work at 1.30pm.

It was a window we could work with for once.

The diner is one of those interesting places like the Ettamogah and Daly Waters pubs; so much memorabilia on the walls you could spend the day there looking at it, return the next day and still see something new.

It’s covered in vintage signs and number plates, Coke collectables and vinyl records.

In fact, 45s were the placemats at the table in our booth.

Guitars and large model planes hung from the ceiling above our heads and a giant Betty Boop statue stood by a jukebox.

We sat and captured our quirky surroundings before setting our phones aside to examine the menu.

I’ve found that often interesting eateries have pricey offerings, possibly purely because they can.

I think they know people will visit for the novelty no matter what.

I remember paying an obscene amount of money for a toastie in Melbourne once, purely because it was made with rainbow cheese and returned a stunning photo.

But it tasted funky and was not a dining experience I ever desired to repeat.

The food at the Ross Street Cafe/Diner though was cheap. Think takeaway prices for sit-down meals.

There aren’t many places I can find a meal with drinks for under 60 bucks for all four of us, so I was stoked.

But what’s better than finding a burger bargain is finding that it tastes good too.

We found both in Ross St.

And as another bonus, staff were super friendly and relaxed.

Our attentive waitress even pulled up a chair next to our booth while waiting for us to order, not once trying to rush our decision-making despite it being during their busy lunch period.

Co-ordinating family outings when all your kids are teens isn’t just challenging for the work roster clash element either.

Interests all have to be catered to if I have any hope of hearing an enthusiastic, “Hell yes, we do” when I ask if they’d like to go someplace.

That’s hard when everyone is into different things.

But with a place like the diner and its mixed bag of themes, you’ve got a lot more chance of tickling everyone’s fancy.

Food, of course, has always been the thing that brings people together no matter what.

A rumble in the tummy can be cured with a slice of dry toast and a bland watery broth if we’re just trying to stop it growling.

But humans make eating about more than just a simple necessity.

We want the bells and whistles and the atmosphere.

At this diner we had a good feed, plus the extras.

My 17-year-old revhead got a kick out of watching the classic cars that the place attracts pulling in as their drivers ducked in and out for a feed.

My 15-year-old music lover was kept entertained reading the artists and tracks on the old records displayed everywhere from the tables to the walls and ceiling.

My 14-year-old avgeek got his satisfaction by studying the planes hanging from the roof.

And me?

Well I got a kick out of a few things: not cooking, not doing dishes and not hearing any bickering for at least an hour.

You can’t please all the people all the time, but you can please them all some of the time.