Almost everyone has a fondness for diners.

Whether it's a convenient place for a meal on a long-distance roadtrip, the regular place you roll into at the end of a night on the town, your every-Tuesday-for-meatloaf lunch place or the excuse for an excursion, most people have eaten in these most American of restaurants.

If you want to spark a lively discussion, ask those same people to define what makes a diner.

The answers you get will be as numerous as the items on the menu and as diverse as the customers they serve.

When it comes to defining diners Brian Butko is a purist. "A diner is a factory-built restaurant transported to its site of operation," Butko says.

Butko ought to know.

He and Kevin Patrick wrote "Diners of Pennsylvania," published in 1999 by Stackpole Books, which serves as a statewide guide to the 260 diners that existed at the time.

"Food was a very small part of it," Butko says. "I wanted to get the story behind (diners) -- the geographical/cultural story of why there are diners and why they are located where they are."

There was also a practical reason behind the definition. Factory-built diners could be more easily tracked as they moved from factory to site and sometimes in later life from site to site.

That narrow definition creates some interesting distinctions.

It means that only one of Eat'N Park Hospitality group's three Park Classic Diners qualifies for inclusion in Butko's definition.

All three serve breakfast all day; grill hamburgers from fresh, not frozen, ground beef; and mix milkshakes made from hand-dipped ice cream, says Adam Golumb, director of marketing for the Eat'N Park Hospitality Group.

But by Butko's standards, the Monroeville location that opened in 2001 is the only true diner. Unlike those in Jeannette and Boardman, Ohio, the Monroeville building is a factory built diner, created in the Kullman factory in Lebanon, N.J., and trucked to its location on William Penn Highway.

Judged by other, less-restricted definitions all three locations qualify, argues Jana Sharlow, regional director for the Park Classic Diner division.

"A diner is a place where you get lots of homey food and a nice atmosphere," says Sharlow, whose grandmother used to take her to the now-closed Venus Diner, in Richland Township. All three locations bread their fried chicken, mix their meatloaf and make their pies.

Plus, Sharlow says, "The tablehops and crew know who you are."

The rules for a successful diner haven't changed much over the years, says Donald Bailey, of Belle Vernon, who spent nearly 50 years owning and managing four Western Pennsylvania diners including the Summit Diner in Somerset that was sold to Mitzie Foy in 2005.

"When I think of a diner, I think of basic food, comfort food, well prepared and served in a good, timely manner at a reasonable cost," he says.

A good staff of long-time employees also contributes much, Bailey says.

"It's important for waiters and waitresses to have friendly relationship, and if a customer comes in all the time to talk to them -- and not just what are they going to have today," Bailey says. "It's kind of like family going in there."

People are an important diner ingredient, says Keith Pippi who with his wife, Corrine, owns Pittsburgh's oldest diner -- Pip's Diner, in the West End.

"It's the people. It's like Cheers without the booze. It's the same people every day for breakfast or for lunch. When somebody gets married, you get an invitation to the wedding," he says.

Maybe it's the bottomless coffee cup policy or just the relaxed atmosphere that encourages a camaraderie you won't find at fast food restaurants.

"At McDonalds, you're in, you're out. Here they may stay for three or four hours. You can't get rid of them," Pippi says.

"Diners have a mystique. I love that '50s era of muscle cars, 45 rpm records and diners," says George Gatto, owner of Gatto's Diner, in Tarentum. "It's not a big money maker, but it's fun and it brings people together."

"It's a family type of restaurant that creates a family type of atmosphere," says Art Velisaris, one of the four owners of Ritter's diner, in Oakland. "We cater to all people, not just the working class ... you'll find politicians, attorneys, street people. People come in to eat and everybody gets along."

"Diners are homey, and the food is homey," says P. Beasley, of Highland Park, as she waits for her breakfast at Ritter's.

"And you run into people you see all the time," adds her tablemate Priscilla Thompson, also of Highland Park.

"The coffee is good, and they give you enough of it," says Hank Ellsler, who's sitting in an adjoining booth at Ritter's where he's on a break from his job as a bus driver for Laidlaw Transit. "The atmosphere is good, and the waitresses -- you get to know them. They sit down to talk to you."

For Fox Chapel resident Ken Gargaro, what makes diners attractive is the sense of place.

"Denny's is always the same. The food has an expected nature," he says. "But in diners the food has got this sharp-edged, rugged feel to it. There are thick slices of bacon and pancakes of different sizes."

It's that wonderful inconsistency and singularity that makes diners a frequent stopping place for Rick Sebak.

The producer of the television documentary "Pennsylvania Diners and Other Roadside Attractions" that originally aired on WQED-TV and was recently re-released in DVD format, Sebak has had a lifelong fondness for diners.

"The places I love, I often love because they are not consistent. Diners can be like that," he says."There are factors that come together to make it work. If you are there every day, you're more likely to be them at the magic moment."

That helps to explain why a diner can be just another place to eat for one person and someplace special for someone else, he says: "Your favorite diner could be because of the day you were there and the people who were there and that makes it magic for you."

Region's diners

There are many ways to define what makes a diner a diner.

For the purposes of the following list we've gone with the definition Brian Butko and Kevin Patrick use for their book "Diners of Pennsylvania": "A diner is a factory-built restaurant transported to its site of operation. ... Our criteria is not a value judgment about the restaurant, just a way of distinguishing diners from other eateries."

Here are some Western Pennsylvania diners that are still operating.

Ritter's Diner, 5221 Baum Blvd., Oakland; 412-682-4852; open 24 hours daily

Summit Diner, 791 North Center Ave., Somerset; 814-445-7154; 4:45 a.m.-midnight daily

Dean's Diner, 2175 Route 22 West, Blairsville; 724-459-9600; open 24 hours daily

Dick's Diner, 4200 William Penn Highway, Murrysville; 724-327-4566; 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

Yakity-Yak Diner, River Road, Route 66, North Apollo; 724-478-2472; 6 a.m.-9 p.m. daily

Ruthie's Diner, Route 30 East, Ligonier; 724-238-6030; 6 a.m.-9 p.m. daily

Gatto's Cycle Diner, 139 East 6th Ave., Tarentum; 724-224-0500, ext.136; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays

Pip's Diner 1900 Woodville Ave., Westwood; 412-922-2900; 6 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 7 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sundays

The Park Classic Diner, 3893 William Penn Highway, Monroeville; 412-373-6395; 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Sundays

Originally published online here: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/fooddrink/restaurantreviews/s_489038.html