Gloria Ferris

I was waiting for somebody else to comment on the item from yesterday’s paper, Without Moe or a certain future, Ruthie closes her diner….”It’s a very sad fact that we have to close,” said the provider of distinguished matzo ball soup, fresh-cut french fries and mile-high coconut cakes. “We’ve been open for a long time.”

I’m sure we’re not alone in our sentiments, so I’ll take the lead.

We are crushed. We feel empty. We feel as though somebody died. We feel guilty, as well–culpable, liable, somewhat responsible. Could we have taken more people by there, could we have been more supportive, could we have made a difference? Could we have spent more money there?

In the Platonic world of forms, the older front end of Ruthie and Moe’s fills the bill for being the embodiment of the concept of the “diner.” That new shiny diner-lookalike thing up the road and to the north apiece–Ruthie’s competition–really can’t be considered a fit substitute for the unique product Ruthie and Moe’s brought to the table–it lacks the “soul” of the diner, that certain panache or ambience that Moe and Ruthie and their regulars understood so well. It was genuine, it was authentic, it was a “third place” some used as their office, and some used to find a sense of community. It was Cheers without alcohol, and we don’t really know right now how we’re going to replace it in our list of places to hang out, places to tell people about, local items to brag on. It stood out in this area, in this culture, because it had a “cosmopolitan” air to it, and there are no others like it, locally, that we’re aware of–but then again, we have used an “outside Cleveland” frame of reference on this one, having cut our diner teeth in The Miss Worcester many years ago.

We wish Ruthie the best. We’ll always be fans.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 8th, 2006 at 8:09 am and is filed under Cleveland, growing an economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.