'Counter Culture' offers photographic ode to New York City’s enduring diners

The humble diner has long been an icon of Americana, but like many national staples, New York City has its own special variation. In the city, diners are brusquer, busier and more diverse, bastions of a past in a town constantly besieged with change.

James and Karla Murray know this well. The husband and wife architectural photographers have built a career capturing the city’s charms, publishing photo books on its store fronts, its neon signage and its bar. Now, in “Counter Culture: New York City’s Greatest Diners and Luncheonettes” out Tuesday, the couple have turned their cameras to 30 of Manhattan’s diners and luncheonettes, preserving these beloved hubs of good food and good company for posterity and, they hope, present-day appreciation.

The diners, “need customers more than anything,” said Karla in a phone interview, adding that, “We wish [the book] could have come out sooner.”

Four Manhattan diners they featured in the book – Cozy Soup & Burger, Star on 18, Hector’s Cafe and Pearl Diner – closed after decades of service.

“It breaks our heart,” said Karla. “The whole purpose of the book is to highlight these places and bring light to them.”

For the couple, it’s not just a matter of loving retro design and counter stools: New York diners hold a special place in their personal memory as frequent haunts of their early romance. They spent their first date in a diner.

“It was the Coffee Shop on Union Square West. It was a notorious late night spot,” Karla said.

“We shared a grilled cheese and a plate of fries,” James added.

The Coffee Shop closed in 2018. Today, the space it’s a Chase Bank. But as much as that erasure is a New York story, so is the enduring nature of some of the still-open luncheonettes in the book.

The co-owner of one featured institution, the Lexington Candy Shop, told the couple they haven’t changed a thing since 1948.

“It’s like stepping back in time,” said Karla. The clientele, however, has changed somewhat.

Today, “you get old-timers and you get Instagram folks. They all live together in there,” said James. Such is the beauty of the New York diner.

Below are a selection of images from the Murray’s book “Counter Culture: New York City’s Greatest Diners and Luncheonettes” out on Tuesday, Sept. 15. by Prestel Publishing.