LIFESTYLE
Elon Eats: Nostalgia with a side of fries
Blue Ribbon Diner serves
classic diner favorites in
’50s-inspired setting
K McKay
Contributor
@KMcKav
Its the 1950s in the United States. Look out
the window and embrace the endless rows
of identical houses during this booming pe
riod for suburbia. Turn on the radio to catch
the next episode of your favorite soap opera.
Dean Martin, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone top
the music charts.
Imagine S. Church Street is Route 66.
Hamburgers and fries are the trendy food of
the time and Blue Ribbon Diner is the mod
el diner. Teenagers squeeze six to a booth on
Friday night, dates hold hands while sharing a
milkshake and friendly staff in uniforms greet
every person that walks in.
Blue Ribbon Diner owner Wayne Bunting
has spent the past 26 years recapturing his
youth through the restaurant, one of three
he owns in the area. He also owns the Vil
lage Grill and a second Blue Ribbon Diner
in Mebane.
“When I was much younger, the drive-in,
50s theme was not a theme ~ it was the 50s,”
Bunting said. “I love the cars, I love the mu
sic of the 50s, and we said, ‘Why not, let’s do a
hamburger restaurant that kind of recaptures
some of that drive-in feeling.”’
To help capture the feeling, the interior
of the restaurant is styled after a classic diner.
Customers can choose to sit at the countertop
or in the red vinyl booths. Photos of classic cars
BLUE RIBBOH DIHER
Where: 2465 S. Church St.
Hours: 11 a.m.-l 0 p.m. every day
Specials: Applejack-grilled chicken,
Chicken Pie, Country Fired Steak,
hand dipped milkshakes,
line the walls and the floor is classic black-and-
white checkered tile. The setting alone makes
the dining experience memorable.
Outside the restaurant, the bright blue aw
ning and neon blue lettering are hard to miss.
Bunting’s favorite part of the decor is the juke
box that sits at the front of the entrance.
“So many people are drawn to it because of
the look of the 50s-style jukebox,” Bunting said.
When first designing the menu. Bunting
knew he wanted to approach hamburgers in
a different way.
“At that time, the gourmet hamburger was
not the gourmet hamburger,” Bunting said. “It
was a fast-service, quick-food type of ham
burger. We were trying to do a little bit bet
ter-quality product.”
Today, the menu has expanded to in
clude a variety of burger styles, all priced
around $8 with fries included. The diner
also offers gluten-free buns.
Surprisingly though, the hamburger is
not the “must-order” item on the menu.
At the Burlington location, chicken is
king — Applejack-grilled chicken, to be
specific. The sauce is a perfect balance
of tangy and sweet and the grill marks
on the breast make it Instagram-worthy.
Customers can order the chicken a vari
ety of ways; in a wrap, on a sandwich, in a
K MCKAY I Contributor
Staff members speak behind the retro counter at Blue Ribbon Diner on S. Church Street in Burlington.
salad or in a basket.
For those looking for more homestyle clas
sics, Blue Plate daily specials such as Monday
Chicken Pie and Friday Country Fried Steak
will only set you back $6.99 and come with
two vegetable sides.
Don’t fill up on the entrees, though, or you
might miss arguably one of the best dessert
menus in town. Once you’ve had one of their
classic hand-dipped milkshakes, you won’t be
able to look at the fast food soft-serve again.
The peach cobbler sundae is also always a
great decision, with layers of homemade
cobbler and vanilla ice cream served in a tall,
thick glass.
While the positives far outweigh, the
negatives, customers should be aware of a
few things before making the trip. Vegetari
an and vegan options on the menu are lim
ited, breakfast isn’t on the menu and there is
no “late-night dining.” The diner is open 11
a.m.-lO p.m. seven days a week.
Yet these small negatives don’t seem to
deter customers, as the diner is still regular
ly packed after 26 years.
The ’50s invokes memories of poodle
skirts, suburbia and rock ‘n roll, but the
Blue Ribbon Diner serves as a reminder
that food culture was just as defined and
prominent as music and fashion during the
time. The diner has established itself as a
time capsule to the past, where great food is
just one of its many attractive qualities.
Next time you’re craving meatloaf,
chicken tenders or the classic hamburger
and fries, hop in the car and head over to
Blue Ribbon Diner. If you’re lucky enough
to see Bunting while you’re there, pull out
a little ’50s lingo and tell him he’s got a hip,
way-out place.
Vagina Monologues highlights women’s issues
WHEN & WHERE
Alexandra Schonfeld
Assistant Litestyle Editor
@asclionfeld096
The Vagina Monologues has
become an annual Valentine’s Day
tradition for the Elon University
community. This year, while the
topic of women’s rights hangs in the
air around the country, the perfor
mance aims to be even more poi
gnant than in years past.
The Vagina Monologues is a
play written by Eve Ensler that
premiered in 1996 and is still per
formed all around the world today.
The play consists of monologues
that Ensler composed after con
ducting interviews with more than
200 women about their experiences.
No monologue represents one
woman’s experience, but rather the
experiences of many.
The Vagina Monologues will run
at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Feb. 14 in
Whitley Auditorium. Tickets are $5.
Elon’s production is sponsored by
EFFECT and all proceeds will benefit
CrossRoads of Alamance County, a
sexual assault response and resource
center serving the area.
The show is one of the few op
portunities on campus for non-ma
jors to audition and perform for the
community. Senior Emily Ciuffetelli
is directing the show this year and
said it is the largest turnout for au
ditions they’ve ever had — spanning
various ages and majors.
Junior Viiu Loub decided to au
dition on a whim with one of her
good friends, with no expectation of
getting a role.
“Fun fact; She was the first person
cast in the show,” Ciuffetelli said.
the;
V/^INA
PHOTO BY IRiS SULLIVAN
The Vagina Monologues’ cast poses together for a promotional photo that incorporates warrior paint to symbolize empowerment.
cally placed sheets. And to her sur- Aside from the words the actors
After seeing the show her fresh
man year, Loub said it was, “oddly
inspirational.”
“And it’s meant to be,” she said.
“But as a freshman in college — I’m
already a pretty open and fairly com
fortable person — I thought it would
just be a cool performance to see. I
think a part of the reason it’s so cool
is it catches people off guard on how
meaningful it is.”
The women have had individu
al rehearsals with Ciuffetelli since
the beginning of Winter Term and'
have recently started rehearsing as
a group.
To promote the event, Ciuffetelli
tentatively suggested doing a faux-
nude” photo shoot using strategi-
prise, everyone was on board.
“The day that we actually did it,
everyone was so body confident and
body positive and it helped kind of
form a bond,” Ciuffetelli said.
Almost every year, Ensler adds
a new monologue to the script or
takes one out, but for the first time
in a while, she kept the script from
last year.
“She kept in the one she added
last year which is a monologue with
five women and is about the trans
experience,” Ciuffetelli said. “From
being a young child, through the ad
versity [and] how they become who
they really are. I’m really happy she
kept that one in.”
speak during the show, Ciuffetel
li hopes the audience will also find
meaning in what the actors do when
they’re silent.
“They’re all going to be sitting [on
stage] the whole time — except the
person performing — but the rota
tion of how they’re sitting is going
to change and where they’re look
ing is going to change,” Ciuffetelli
said. “To me, that is representing the
world and society’s view of whatever
[topic is being discussed]. Do they
have their backs turned to it? Are
they looking straight on? Are they
looking past it?”
Ciuffetelli said preparing for the
performance during our current po-
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 14
Time: 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Location: Whitley Auditorium
Tickets: $5
litical climate has also given the show
a different feel from years past.
“I think it has been a very cathar
tic thing for me and other people in
this time to be able to have this as a
form of expression,” she said.
While preparing for her role, Loub
said she looked up videos of past pro
ductions from around the world and
watched her specific monologue vari
ous times. Though the words were the
same, Loub noticed that each perfor
mance was unique.
“Everyone was so different, even
in the littlest ways,” she said. “It can
make the biggest difference in how
that monologue is perceived and
how it comes out.”
Ciuffetelli is grateful she got to
spend her fourth and final time
working on the show as director
and watching the actors’ progress
through rehearsals.
“No matter what end you
participate in the Vagina Mono
logues, this is — I am willing to
say — a life changing experience
for anyone who participates,” Ci
uffetelli said. “The girls who came
in the very first read-through
came in uncomfortable about
saying ‘vagina’ in front of a lot of
people. And just through the in
dividual rehearsals seeing people
come into their own and just real
ly accepting their womanhood has
been so beautiful.”