Profile

On a gritty corner that’s a talisman of Brooklyn’s past, present, and hopeful future, this tiny diner churns out thousands of breakfasts and lunches for commuters and the legions of construction workers who are building the emerging residential canyons of Fourth Avenue. The food’s reliable but ho-hum, save for a few house specialties, like the grilled tomato sauce that tops its breakfast eggs, a pepper-and-onion-laced concoction that evokes the classic Arab-Israeli shakshouka. Most items are fresh-made, but others, like the frozen, cutlet-shaped hash-browns, suffer injurious reheating by deep fryer. Since it opened in 1993, the shop has made concessions to new culinary trends—witness veggie burgers and wraps filled with feta and grilled vegetables or turkey-BLT. But most reliable here are the standards, like breakfast, burgers, Greek dishes, and New College’s eight variations on the club sandwich. The coffee’s plenty good, too, and made fresh, to slake the caffeine thirst of a steady stream of morning customers. — Helen Zelon

Special eggs, $7.95; spinach pie with Greek salad, $8.65