This couple is venturing to eat at every Garden State diner. They’re now onto South Jersey.
Karri and Jon Ricklin have eaten at more than 300 diners so far — and they've clocked certain differences between those at the north and south ends of the state.
Tucked into a booth toward the back of The Falcon Diner in Brooklawn on Wednesday afternoon, Jon and Karri Ricklin fell into the routine they’ve come to perfect over the past decade.
As they took their seats, Karri captured a photo of her husband smiling brightly as he held up the multi-page menu. This photo — the 331st of its kind — has become their trademark.
The hundreds of nearly identical shots serve as a sort of digital passport for the pair as they venture to eat at every diner in New Jersey.
And in a state dubbed the “Diner Capital of the World,” that has proven to be no easy task.
The list is always changing as diners open, close, and change ownership, Jon said. But of 130 places they haven’t visited, the majority will bring them to South Jersey — stretching from the Philly suburbs to the Jersey Shore.
At the same time, the long-time Bergen County residents are now considering a potential move a little further south, so far looking around Red Bank and Hamilton Township.
After Karri’s recent retirement from a 40-year nursing career, the couple is hoping to downsize, and because of their years-long effort, they “have no choice” but to stay in New Jersey — at least until they cross that final diner off their list, Karri joked.
“It’s not because of the diner project,” Jon added, “but it’ll help with the diner project.”
Keeping the tradition alive
It all began in 2015 when the Hillsdale couple, married for 42 years this summer, stopped at the Livingston Diner in North Jersey after visiting with family in the hospital.
Karri took the first of the now-famous menu photos to which Jon jokingly suggested, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we take this same picture at every diner in the state?”
More than 11 years and 330 meals later, the couple is still chasing that goal, documenting the project on their Instagram, @NJDinerJourney, and as of a few months ago, a new website.
Now with over 6,000 followers, Karri and Jon have become something of unofficial spokespeople for the preservation of diners and diner culture in New Jersey.
“It’s been fun,” Jon said. “It feels good to be sort of an ambassador to the state. We just never expected it.”
“Jersey is known for its diners, but you go to any small town anywhere in America, they’re going to have a little coffee shop or a little luncheonette and that’s their diner. So people can relate to that,” he said.
When they first started their journey, the couple counted between 500 and 550 total diners in the state, Jon said.
They have since watched that number fall to about 400, he said, with fewer than two dozen around-the-clock operations still standing — the retro-inspired Falcon Diner among them.
With its chrome trim and neon striping, the Falcon — which locals may know better under its previous names, most recently the Empire Diner and the Brooklawn Diner before that — is one of the few places still carrying on the “any food at any hour” ethos that has made the New Jersey diner so timeless.
From construction workers grabbing a pre-sunrise breakfast to college kids looking for a late-night meal, the 24-hour diner has long been a central gathering place where everyone in the community is welcome to sit down for an affordable, filling meal, or simply a conversation and a cup of coffee (bottomless, of course).
“We really want to keep that tradition alive and support small businesses,” Jon said. “Just about every one is a small business.”
‘How’s everything, hon’?’
The couple’s trips are rarely planned more than a day or two in advance.
Typically the conversation starts with some version of: “Will this be a Parkway day, a Turnpike day, or a Route 80 day?”
They pick one, find a diner along the route, and then they’re off, they said.
After quickly working their way through what Jon calls the “low-hanging fruit” — the diners closest to them in North Jersey — the couple has started venturing into South Jersey more often.
“It’s been an interesting journey,” Jon said. “We’ve seen a lot of the state that we normally would not have seen.”
Because their trips often take them to towns they’ve never visited, they also make an effort to check out the community before they head home, whether it be a stroll through a nearby park or a visit to a local farmer’s market or museum.
After a recent visit to the Legacy Diner in Audubon, they perused downtown Haddonfield, where Karri fell in love with the English Gardener Gift Shop before they grabbed a drink at King’s Road Brewing.
What qualifies as a diner?
For the Ricklins, the criteria is pretty simple: If it’s called a diner or serves traditional diner food, it’s most likely going to make the list.
For places that don’t have the word “diner” in the title, such as Maple Shade’s Maple Hill Restaurant or the White House Restaurant in Moorestown, it comes down to the type of food and experience they provide, Jon said.
A few requirements: A menu offering “classic diner food,” American fare at minimum but often a lot more, including all-day breakfast. A brightly lit dessert display case. Pots of fresh coffee at the ready.
Some Jersey diner purists they’ve heard from online approach the question differently and don’t agree with their methodology, he said, and they’re OK with that.
The Ricklins’ main goal is to have fun together and support small businesses in the process, he said, so in his mind, the more the merrier.
And as usual, North and South Jersey do things a little differently.
Beyond the perennial debate about what to call pork roll, a few more regional quirks have emerged over the years. Meals get a bit pricier the further north you are, for instance, but they rarely come with the cup of soup that is customary in many diners down south, they said.
They also noted South Jersey servers are quicker to throw out a warm “hon’” when greeting the table.
As more people have taken notice of their journey, Jon said they sometimes get recognized when they’re taking the requisite menu shot. They were even invited to join former Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife for a diner lunch to celebrate National New Jersey Day in 2024, he said.
But for the most part, they’re still anonymous, just another table of happy patrons chatting over a meal.
And while they don’t expect anyone else to start their own diner journey, they are hoping that their story inspires people to try something new, even if it’s just a visit one town over.
“Just get off the couch and go,” Karri said.
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