Dimitri's Farmer's Market, Pompano Beach

I found this one on a drive home from Broward County. I'd had some old Hi8 video digitized at Old Film Transfer in Coral Springs, and thought I might see a bit of the neighborhood. Somehow that wound up as a drive south, then east, and then north. In South Florida, one does not ramble. It was rush hour, and the traffic clogged near every entrance to the highway, promising a slow ride to nowhere. One north-south street was completely back up, and the next one going east wasn't. So that's where I went.

I drove down Andrews quickly. This street didn't have minimalls, Publixes (is that the plural?) and gas stations. Here there were repair shops, apartment buildings and little warehouses. Soon I saw a sign that said "Dimitri's Farmer's Market" in a pleasingly faded scrawl. I turned into the parking lot, a bare space fronting a low white shack and spreading into another lot flanked by huge, fearsome trucks. Interesting.

Dimitri's caters to the familiar. The waitresses are old, worn and sweet. They don't bother with makeup, which makes sense as it takes time and is unlikely to increase tips from the clientele, mostly men of a certain age who sit alone at their solitary tables and talk on the phone when they're not talking across the tables to one another, or getting a ribbing from Dimitri, who will gladly ring you up at the register and tell you to have a nice evening.

Here's what you can eat at Dimitri's.

The grilled cheese was very good. I always order mine with tomato, and this was nice and warm and not just slapped on after cooking. I could have had mine on Texas Toast, but I got rye because when I am given the choice of rye I am unable to say no. The french fries were close to English chips, thick and hearty, and tasted like potatoes. And the coffee was excellent. For my European readers (well, reader), this means the coffee was not watery, but quite rich, and had a hint of flavor, perhaps chicory.

Not much to say about the rest of the menu, which was only two pages and was similar to other "country kitchens" I've seen in Florida. There is a hint of Greek in the name and the existence of a single gyro on the menu, and there the similarity to Greek diners in other parts of the country ends.

It's a long drive, but I'll be back.