To All The Diners I’ve Loved Before: The Regal

the first, and possibly only, in a series

The Regal diner was on 8th Avenue below 23rd, on the eastern side of the street. It’s either a pharmacy, a fast food chicken place, or the dry cleaner between them now—I was there a few years ago, and it bears so little resemblance to its former self that I am unsure which storefront was my beloved haunt. 

In 1996 I lived with my father in a tiny sublet …