The owner, in all likelihood a Greek, can usually be found in the kitchen or at the grill. And the waitress calls you Hon. There are places with some of these amenities that call themselves diners, to be sure, places that also fit the technical definition of being constructed off-site. These are the Colonial, Mediterranean or contemporary diner-restaurants that have flowered on suburban boulevards in the past 20 years. Diner buffs, a small but passionate band, looked askance at these mutants when they first materialized in the 1960s, but most have now adopted an attitude of benign tolerance.
Diners are uniquely American.
A case can be made that diners reflect the American character. The diner is everybody's kitchen. The diner business has appealed to immigrants. The roadside was a route to business success. One will be the chef, another the short-order cook, one of the wives will be the cashier.