Best greasy spoon
Don't let most diners fool you - it takes more than a little funky bric-a-brac and a sassy waitress from Texas to attain greasy-spoon status. Take the South Street Diner. It's got the back-story: a sausage link's throw from South Station, it's been open, in various incarnations, since the 1920s - and remains open 24/7. It's got the look: 1950s-era linoleum, chrome, vinyl, and neon. And, best of all, it's got the grub: burgers and cheese fries, onion rings and frappes, and pancakes and eggs served all day - with plenty o' joe, natch.

It's also got company: Charlie's Kitchen is the lone real thing in the throng of chain outlets Harvard Square has become. Dubbing itself "The Double Cheeseburger King," this two-story institution dishes up its signature item, along with lobster rolls, meat loaf, and turkey tips, to a surprisingly multigenerational Cantabrigian crowd. The transplanted-roadhouse setting owes its central design motif to the well-known firm of Coors & Budweiser - just as the neighborhood owes its last shred of authenticity to it.

South Street Diner, 178 Kneeland Street, Boston, (617)350-0028; Charlie's Kitchen, 10 Eliot Street, Cambridge, (617) 492-9646.