Diner Coffee, But Not As You Know It

A Chemex pourover with your pancakes?

The Moran Square Diner interior. Courtesy of Adam Willoughby

I love diner coffee. Not the liquid itself, which tends to be burned and watered down to the point that it’s not recognizable as coffee. What I love is the atmosphere around diner coffee: the heavy mugs, the endless refills, the carb-heavy food that accompanies it. I love the people-watching, the conversations overheard, the sense of life happening all around—it’s one of my very favorite things about America.

The coffee is, as previously mentioned, usually pretty dire. The cheapest, low-quality stuff available, watery and acrid from sitting too long on a hot plate. Adding creamer helps a bit, but you’re not really drinking coffee at that point. What would the diner experience be like if the coffee were actually good?

Funny you should ask, because a little while ago I received an email about that very thing. Adam Willoughby and his wife Brittany Careau own the Moran Square Diner in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and he wrote to me after reading a (very old) post on the Pourover called ‘In Praise of Diner Coffee’. 

In that post I talked about how much diners meant to me, albeit in a stilted, mannered kind of way (I wince reading much of my old writing). Willoughby somehow found it and reached out, wondering whether theirs was a unique proposition among American diners: the Moran Square Diner might have endless refills and the requisite diner mugs, but they serve specialty coffee brewed by Chemex.

Pourovers and Pancakes

“It was just kind of a way to set ourselves apart,” Willoughby says of the decision to serve pourovers. “We want to have the best coffee around, and we kind of want to really focus on good quality ingredients. And the best way to show off that is to use the best beans with the best roast and prepare it in a way that's going to show off the coffee bean as a fruit.”

They were, he said, actively trying to stand apart from the usual diner offering: “Rather than using darker roasts and going for bitter or smoky flavors we want brightness and acidity, we like the coffee to help accentuate the flavor of the food and to counteract that.”

Willoughby and Careau both started out in the fine dining world, and while their work took them around Massachusetts they always felt a connection to the diner in their hometown even after it closed in 2018. “We came here a lot while we were dating,” Willoughby says, “and we always kind of joked about opening it up ourselves but the timing was never right.” When the pandemic hit, however, it seemed like time was all they had.

One Kickstarter campaign later, and the diner has been reopened for a year—in fact on the day we speak they are celebrating their first anniversary. The diner itself has a very traditional train car look, with an interior that wouldn’t be out of place on a movie set. A counter with low stools runs down one side, with a row of booth seating opposite. Wood paneling and an arched ceiling complete the dining car feel.

As Willoughby tells it, the menu focuses on classic diner staples: your pancakes, your home fries, your corned beef hash and so on. At one point they were doing 10 course dinner tasting menus, which Willoughby says “did fairly well, but between my wife and I running this place, we always joke that our cats need parents.” So they’ve pared it back, focusing on quality ingredients, and this extends from the food to the coffee.

Easily the Easiest Decision

Four Chemexes on the counter—with scales, of course—brew coffee from Greater Goods Roasting in Austin, Texas. Having tried several dozen coffee roasters, the pair settled on Greater Goods because, put simply, it was the best they tasted. “It was easily the easiest decision,” Willoughby says, “and every roast that they do benefits a different charity, which also kind of fits our mission statement.”

The choice of Chemex was a little more matter-of-fact: offering bottomless cups means brewing a lot of coffee. “It was born out of convenience,” Willoughby says, “and then it just created a really nice consistent product.” While a few customers have commented on the longer brew time, “I think it's also them noticing the care and attention to detail that we're putting into the coffee.”

“When you walk in you see all the Chemexes,” Willoughby continues, “and you see someone putting their heart and soul into the coffee. It kind of sets the tone for what we're all about at this restaurant, that quality of food is paramount.”

Diner Coffee Expectations

What about the response from customers who maybe have a different expectation of diner coffee? Willoughby says most people have been willing to try their way. “People definitely notice the quality,” he says. Occasionally there will be more mixed reactions, but “they're also coming in with expectations of diner coffee.”

Is the Moran Square Diner the only diner offering pourover specialty coffee? I hope not, but it’s highly likely—good coffee is more expensive, and brewing by Chemex is time-consuming (if you know of any others, do let me know). Much easier to throw whatever stuff your wholesaler has available into a drip pot and be done with it. 

But what Willoughby and Careau are doing feels important, to me at least. Good food deserves good coffee to go with it, and perhaps a few of their customers will be inclined to seek out more.