Today I ordered the grilled vegetable sandwich on rye w/cole slaw. Roasted red peppers, onions, zucchini, eggplant perfectly sauteed & layered high on warm, extra thick toasted rye bread [Normally it’s sourdough-I substituted]. Tangy, crunchy, soft, and impossible to stop eating after the first bite. My dining partner who never eats sandwiches devoured almost half of my sandwich. One bite, and she could not stop. Addictive food served here.

The cole slaw was perfect. Not too much mayo, not full of sugar. Fresh, crisp & refreshing.

My beverage choice was housemade fresh V8 served with a slice of lime. A bit o’ spice, and a perfect Sunday AM pick-me-up. I also had regular brewed coffee which was excellent, strong & fresh. Perfect temperature, and the staff was spot on with top offs and refills.

The dessert tray is a work of art so chock full of amazing things like “Berry White” which is a layered creation with creamy filling, berries, & white chocolate, homemade Oreos, vegan chocolate cake, cobbler and other things with meringue and all gorgeously done at the hands of a classically trained pastry chef, it’s hard to choose one dessert!

I tried the vegan tapioca pudding which has a touch of coconut and almost no sugar. It’s rich, creamy with strawberry garnish, and if you like tapioca, it’s to die for.

My friend had baked eggs with spinach and polenta - excellent.

All in all, I was astounded at the quality of the food. I’ve sampled Monica’s food at her other restaurants and clubs which is consistently wonderful. But something about the Nickel really clicked for me. Maybe it’s the comfortable booths, the big windows on a sunny Sunday morning. It’s wonderful. My only fear is it will get too popular on the weekends, because once people sample this food, there will be lines around the block.

That the Pig ‘n’ Whistle was charging even higher prices in the 1930s, as shown on the menu linked by Rich Alossi, is not surprising. Pig ‘n’ Whistle was a very upscale establishment. The deluxe dinners on this page of their 1939 menu include such things as Crab Legs a la Newburg with Melba Toast. Cheap hash houses didn’t have such menu items. Even in the 1960s- the only period in which I ever went to a Pig ‘n’ Whistle- the place was way more expensive than run-of-the-mill coffee shops.

More comparable to a Main Street diner of the 1930s, though still undoubtedly pricier than such a place would have been, was the Merry Go Round on Hill Street, where in 1938 a hamburger was fifteen cents, and no sandwich was more than twenty cents. They didn’t list beer or soft drinks, but coffee, tea, and milk were only five cents.

On Main Street in the 1930s, even then decidedly less swanky than Hill Street, prices would have been lower. A diner there probably couldn’t have sold draft beer for anything over a dime and remained in business for long. Ten cents became pretty much the standard price for soft drinks only in the 1950s, at most soda fountains and coffee shops. As late as the end of the 1940s you could still get a Coke for a nickle at most drug store or dime store fountains. I remember my mom complaining about how expensive they’d become when they went up to a dime.