Grafton Diner - 106 W High Lane
Adjacent to the train station, this place does a good business with its 55 cent lunch. Having tried the food, though, local customers tend to go to Lucy's. The Grafton opens at 5 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m., seven days a week (except holidays). The Grafton is the only eating place in town open Sundays. It mostly serves transients or those without facilities to cook. Sunday mornings can be crowded.
The Grafton advertises in every newspaper up and the down the Missituk Valley, helping to guarantee as much business as possible from those passing through New Jerusalem. As such, many of the Grafton’s customers are out-of-towners grabbing a quick meal the shortest distance from the train station. By each entrance are bowls filled with complimentary green matchbooks, each bearing the diner’s name, likeness, and address. These matchbooks are found in the pockets of many travelers and businessmen in the Missituk Valley and beyond.
As the sole public eatery permitted to be open on Sundays, the clientele is much more diverse that day, with everyone from out-of-towners staying at smaller hotels without dining services to lonely souls looking for some company. On average the Grafton does 1/3 of its weekly business on Sundays; lines are to be expected.
The Grafton’s current owner is Irene Bessey (age 54), widow of the previous owner Robert “Handsome Bob” Bessey, a former prize-fighter who named the diner after his hometown in central Massachusetts. Mrs. Bessey had no interest in restaurants or running one, but since her husband’s unexpected death in 1953 she has provided for herself by making sure the Grafton turns a steady profit. Bessey is not generally involved in day to day operations, but she is keenly attentive to the quality of service, food, and the state of the books. She watches over all of them with the same level of care.
While she is on the premises most afternoons and some evenings (there is a small office off the kitchen area), the diner’s operating manager is Michael Lawson (age 36), a serious young man and proficient supervisor. What he lacks in charm he makes up for in effort and a knack for hiring motivated workers.
Most of the rest of the Grafton’s staff are like Lawson — quiet, but efficient — but due to the comparatively poor wages offered, the diner has difficulty in retaining skilled cooks, and the quality of the cooking tends to fluctuate. Behind his back the employees refer to Lawson as ‘Sarge,’ mostly with affection. Mostly.
Lawson is a soft touch for vets with a hard luck story, a fact well known among New Jerusalem’s hobos and drifters. In Lawson’s eyes, he’d rather be conned out of a free meal than let a fellow soldier go hungry; he pays for these meals out of his own pocket.
The Grafton is better known for speed of service and cleanliness rather than any particular dishes. The Sunrise Special — two eggs (any style), toast and jam, corned-beef hash, and potatoes O’Brien runs 45¢ and is popular with travelling salesmen. The enormous Monel percolator, while not making New Jerusalem’s finest brew, is never empty, and the only mugs the Grafton’s staff allow to be empty are either being washed or were just spilled.
Because of its proximity to the B&M Train Station and the ubiquity of outsiders providing excellent cover, the Grafton Diner has sometimes served as a useful meeting point for criminal contacts. Bobby Sills, mobster Danny O’Bannion’s second in command, likes to use the diner as a place to be seen when he needs to establish an alibi or to make a clandestine drop. His preferred method for the latter is to slide a note behind the bathroom mirror with a key for a locker at the train station.
Others with their own mysterious motivation frequent the diner as well - Ed Dunlap is a frequent customer, as is Curtis Sloan.
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