The Pink Panther
Marieke van der Vaart
Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: Down the Hill
Walking into the Pink Panther feels like going back in time. The scent of fresh coffee, cooking grease and cigarette smoke wafts through the air. Neon signs are offset by worn wooden paneling and colorful pieces of knick-knack in this 70-year-old Hillsdale County diner. Even against the fluorescent lights, this place has a fuzzy edge.
1 a.m. and four tables of people are alive with conversation. For third-shift waitress Betty Dearth, it's just another Saturday night at the diner where she's worked for more than thirteen years.
Perched on U.S. 12 between Detroit and Chicago, the 24-hour Pink Panther is a local favorite for truckers and area residents, famous for its burgers, pancakes and Hillbilly salads.
Dearth said she doesn't know exactly how the diner started, but the story goes that a local woman nicknamed Gravel Gertie began the restaurant in a room adjoining her house. Now non-smoking customers eat in the side that used to be her home.
Three shelves of stuffed pink panthers and other themed memorabilia stand on one side of the front window. A "love test" machine stands on the other side. The last person to test his capacity for love scored an "Uncontrollable," which is definitely better than alternatives like "Clammy" or "Harmless."
Regulars say more than the food or the atmosphere, it's the people that set this place apart.
Close to 11:30 p.m., Vicki Hill, 60, walks in. The petite area resident and former Pink Panther employee sits down at the table next to the register, pulls out a cigarette and lights up, staring straight ahead of her.
The long table parallel to the cash register is an unofficially singles-designated table where customers can wander in, sit at and strike up conversation with each other and Dearth.
Elbows propped on the table and sandaled feet gently touching the floor, Hill describes her past with this place.
She first came to the diner when she was 13. Since then she worked at the Pink Panther, developed spinal meningitis and struggled to be able to live a normal life, she said.
1 a.m. and four tables of people are alive with conversation. For third-shift waitress Betty Dearth, it's just another Saturday night at the diner where she's worked for more than thirteen years.
Perched on U.S. 12 between Detroit and Chicago, the 24-hour Pink Panther is a local favorite for truckers and area residents, famous for its burgers, pancakes and Hillbilly salads.
Dearth said she doesn't know exactly how the diner started, but the story goes that a local woman nicknamed Gravel Gertie began the restaurant in a room adjoining her house. Now non-smoking customers eat in the side that used to be her home.
Three shelves of stuffed pink panthers and other themed memorabilia stand on one side of the front window. A "love test" machine stands on the other side. The last person to test his capacity for love scored an "Uncontrollable," which is definitely better than alternatives like "Clammy" or "Harmless."
Regulars say more than the food or the atmosphere, it's the people that set this place apart.
Close to 11:30 p.m., Vicki Hill, 60, walks in. The petite area resident and former Pink Panther employee sits down at the table next to the register, pulls out a cigarette and lights up, staring straight ahead of her.
The long table parallel to the cash register is an unofficially singles-designated table where customers can wander in, sit at and strike up conversation with each other and Dearth.
Elbows propped on the table and sandaled feet gently touching the floor, Hill describes her past with this place.
She first came to the diner when she was 13. Since then she worked at the Pink Panther, developed spinal meningitis and struggled to be able to live a normal life, she said.
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