Every Town Should Have a Nautilus Diner

There's only one thing that's as lengthy and varied as the menu at the , and that's the people who stream to the Madison landmark for a meal, a snack, or just a cup of coffee.

Madison Patch is all about people, and makes regular visits to the Nautilus to get its fix of classic Jersey diner food, and to do some serious navel-gazing. OK, maybe not this much navel-gazing, but the point is well-taken.

After being shown to our booth in the dining room, on this occasion Patch ordered the grilled chicken sandwich as a change from the excellent cheeseburger. The time was well-passed observing the family at the next booth as a harried father tried to get his two toddlers to eat their chicken nuggets, "or suffer the consequences". It took the better part of an hour, but they ate. Life, it seems, is full of unsuffered consequences.

The chicken arrived and Patch can attest, it wasn't your pint-sized sandwich, with a ridiculously ample breast grilled and dressed (as they say in the Big Easy) with lettuce, tomato and mayo. Fries have been ordered off our diet, so they tasted that much better as Patch scarfed them down with lotsa ketchup.

Meanwhile, a mother and daughter returning from buy-one-get-one-free hairstylings fussed over the daughter's three matching little girls, and near the window, a baseball player from a prep school in the next county lunched silently with his girlfriend. Truly, love is the universal language.

After enquiring with our attentive and helpful server, we settled on the Nautilus-baked apple pie, AND DON'T FORGET THE VANILLA ICE CREAM, Patch insisted. (The providence of the ice cream was not determined; it was really good.) All this, and a bottomless glass of Sprite. It was a good day.