On the morning of my cousin’s wedding, we all went out for breakfast to a local diner called Cruisers Malt Shoppe.
Cruisers Malt Shoppe is a cute little diner in a corner spot in downtown Gardner, MA. The outside has some cool murals on it!
And inside Cruisers Malt Shoppe there’s a lot of neat, old decor. There’s a heavy focus on Coca-Cola related products plus lots of old records and car stuff.
It feels very much like a 1950’s Americana diner in here.
I was quite amused by this road/hallway that leads you to the back of the restaurant where there’s another dining room.
Jake totally looks like he could be one of the stooges here!
The menu at Cruisers Malt Shoppe is pretty reasonably priced. We only got to see the breakfast menu since we were there in the morning. If you look at the menus on their website, you’ll see there are FIVE more pages!
[the duke – corned beef hash, two eggs, home fries or hash browns, toast / $6.75]
Here’s my aunt Joyce with her breakfast (and being photobombed by a dude coming out of the bathroom). She got The Duke special. All the specials had names such as “The Marilyn” or “The Sinatra” or “The Wolfman Jack” and were all under $8.
Actually now that I’m spying the menu again, for breakfast there’s nothing over $8. Sweeeeeeet. True diner style prices.
[the meat lovers omelet with sausage, bacon, shaved steak and cheese / $7.75]
Here’s Jake’s breakfast choice – an omelet! I don’t remember the last time he’s gotten an omelet… if ever. It makes more sense though that it was a meat lover’s omelet. I think that’s the only kind of omelet he’d ever want to order. Sadly my photo of inside the omelet did not get saved (dumb camera) so I can’t show you the inside. The inside was packed full of meaty goodness – sausage, bacon, and shaved steak with lots of cheese – and the omelet was wrapped around the eggs, not mixed in. Jake really loved his omelet.
I tried some of the hash browns and they were nothing to sing about. I also thought the toast was a little too toasty.
[double blueberry pancakes / $5.50]
Ashleigh ordered blueberry pancakes and got a side of hash browns and sausage. She made her own combo! She didn’t realize how crazy big the pancakes were otherwise I’m sure she would have gotten only a single pancake (which is a mere $3). She barely made a dent in these huge pancakes!
[stuffed french toast with bacon, egg and cheese / $4.25]
I decided to get something a little different and got a stuffed french toast sandwich.
I could have gone the sweet route (they had strawberries and cream cheese or peanut butter and jelly as options) but figured the savory route would be better. It was sort of like eating a monte cristo with that soft fluffy bread on the outside. But it was better than a monte cristo since it wasn’t greasy! The eggy french toast had some crispy edges and tasted really good paired with the egg, melted cheese, and bacon.
Here we are after enjoying a little breakfast with Ashleigh.
Cruisers Malt Shoppe
280 Central St.
Gardner, MA 01440
978-632-4040
After breakfast, I wanted to drive by and see one of the “giant chairs” that are in Gardner, MA. Joyce and Ashleigh said there are two of them – this is the behind view of the newer chair. I went to see the big chair when I was a kid, but I believe we went to see this one that was in front of a furniture store. When I was a kid and went to see it, my mom, for whatever reason, couldn’t see the giant chair. She kept saying “I don’t see it!” and my dad and I were like… “It’s RIGHT there, it’s so big how can you not see it?!” I think she was looking for something smaller than the giant chair or was looking in the wrong spot because it took her SO LONG to see it, haha.
I hadn’t seen this one before which was in front of an elementary school. The giant chair is pretty darn giant! Jake can’t even reach the seat!
Fun little side trip!
OMG, everything you had looked so good especially the giant blueberry pancakes and the meat lover’s omelette! That’s great that your stuffed French toast was savory. I would prefer that over a sweet one. The decor there is like a pop cultural explosion. I love it! I would expect to see the Fonz come out and pound his fist on a nearby jukebox.
The giant chair was pretty cool too! I love seeing stuff like this whenever we travel somewhere. The quirkier the better. FYI, UCSD also has a giant red chair. It located at the Revelle campus near some building that’s near Stonehenge (sorry don’t remember the name of the building).
Hi CC – You would have loved this spot, there was so much great decor and kitsch in this place! I figured savory would be better than sweet since French toast already has a little bit of sweetness to me. The sweet would have been a little overkill, I think. I’ve only been on UCSD campus a couple of times so I had no idea there was a giant chair there too, haha. Thanks for the tip!