Ethnography

I’m at Yanni’s Greek Diner on a Friday afternoon around noon. Its lunchtime and most people are arriving for the lunch time rush, yet it’s slightly more empty than usual. The cashier refuses to smile or make eye contact with myself or any of the customers who enter for that matter. There are hanging signs of Gyros, a famous Greek entrée, and across the wall is a neon lighted sign with the words “The Best All American Hamburgers”. Next to the cash register are plaques and articles declaring “Yanni’s Best” and then to the left of that is a sign made of wood stating “Life’s Short, Eat Gyros” and another above it suspended from the ceiling “Eat More Gyros”. In the background they have music playing through speakers; music such as the Beach Boys and Franky Valley and the Four Seasons. The theme of the diner seems to be an old 50’s diner with booths and cushioned stools at the bar. The walls have a mural of an old drive up diner with the same 50’s style theme. Waitresses on skates and the “All American” couple in the car. Photos of restored 50’s chevy trucks parked outside the restaurant also hang on the wall. By the bathroom hangs an art piece incorporating a photo of Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and photo of Elvis above kids vending machines that hold candy and miniature toys for 50cents. The walls have so much stuff on them yet it doesn’t feel cluttered, instead it feels more entertaining. Above the bar is a flat screen TV mounted on the wall, they have HLN on; the news. Stories about the passing of Amy Winehouse, the Norway shooting, a Chihuahua that fought off convenient store burglars, but there is no sound so no one can really get the full understanding of what’s being talked about. The man in the booth in front of me sits alone, eating his lunch quietly but he seems more focused on his phone than his lunch. He chews with his mouth open and sips from his paper pepsi cup. Above the music and the sound of the grill cooking fresh burgers and Gyro meat are the voices of the waitress and cashier talking across the restaurant to one another, discussing some matter of T-shirts. A young couple walks in and the young man picks up the change the lady in front of him dropped and hands it back to her. The couple next to me is discussing football and the lockout, then their conversation changes to the story on the TV; the Norway shooting. Behind the young couple that just walked in walks in a couple of older ladies dressed in conservative attire but their shorts are bright pastels pink and purple. I can smell the burgers grilling and then the scent of hot peppers and klamata olives follows. The waitress is keeping busy, pre-bussing her tables and making sure the empty tables are ready for new customers. It’s a different kind of diner though; you order at the register and get your own drink from the soda machine; the waitress is really only there to make sure you have everything you need and to clean up. She is more of busser than a waitress. I realize another picture hanging on the wall, but this one is different from the rest. It’s a young woman with a Gyro in her hand but she has an 80’s hairstyle and 80’s style clothing. The mini fridge behind the counter that holds the dressings has an Amp Energy drink logo. As I walk out I hear the waitress/busser yell to me, “Have a nice day!”

            The atmosphere of the diner is what may be referred to as a bricolage, or a creation formed from a diverse range of available things, in this case cultural representations. The aspects of the 50’s and 80’s cultures as well as the American and Greek cultures that are available to us have been meshed together to create one place. This type of bricolage is a “core element of postmodern culture” (Barker 202) allowing the people who eat and/or work at the diner to blur the traditional cultural lines. Although some, such as Baudrillard, see postmodern culture as ‘depthless’ or ‘superficial’ I don’t believe all of it to be this way and the diner is a perfect example of the positive coming from this post modern era. It allows us to experience more than just our own traditional cultural values and interests. We get to enjoy the cuisine of another place, get a feel for what it may have been like to eat at a diner in the 50’s, all while still being comforted with the familiar.

            The people within the diner also give us something to analyze; both the customers and the workers display different cultures, or ways of life. For Raymond Williams, by way of Chris Barker’s book Cultural Studies: Theory & Practice, he refers to culture as “a whole way of life” (42) which when I hear this I think it to include the ways we eat, speak, and how we act in public vs. private places. The gentleman eating alone displayed his “culture” by eating with his mouth open and being on his phone while eating. This can be attributed to the new fast pace American way of life where we have thrown manners out the door and take our work everywhere we go, including when eating. The two older ladies who walked in dressed conservatively display a more traditional American culture because they speak quietly among themselves and are dressed in more of a conservative manner; unlike the female employees who are speaking loudly and across the diner. Obviously, the female employees have adopted a different culture where it is ok to make your conversation public and interrupt the customers dining experience with it as well. I would normally believe that our identity, or the way that we act, would be much more pleasant in a public place; and that what Stuart Hall refers to as the sociological subject and postmodern subject would play a role in how these people acted. Instead they do not seem to really follow any of the social norms that would accompany the expected attitudes of someone in a public diner. This leads me to wonder how these persons have formed their identities.

           Works Cited

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC, 2008.