Mels Diner

Where to start… I hear this used to be the Coffee Pot in Licking. A little jarring to walk into and find something so rustic, or I guess a better way to put it is someone left in the middle of the night, yanked all the flooring up, the tvs off the wall, and the pictures too, leaving nails in the wall, and random tables & chairs. The bar area is just to the left — a tiny space, with a short bar, the dining is off to the right a medium room with 8 or 9 tables (2 seaters) and what looks like what may have been a teeny stage for performers. There is a much larger room just beyond the area where we were seated – looked pretty much the same but with piece of random fencing in the middle of the room. The tables had little numbers taped to them and there were printed paper signs plastered all over with no smoking.
The menu was typical local diner food. Saturday special was meat loaf with mashed potatoes – but we opted for sandwiches. I went for the Reuben and my sis went for the ham n cheese. We were allowed to swap fries for mashed potatoes.
We were pleasantly surprised with the mashed potatoes – they were real, not instant, seasoned with a salt n pepper, a true rarity that many restaurants cheese out on. I had gravy – but was way too salty and probably out of a jar instead of homemade so it got scraped off to the side. But tasty enough with out the gravy anyhow.
My sis’s sandwich was a double decker with thick slices ham and a piece of American cheese on each layer – I think each layer had 3 slices! She had a choice of breads – white, whole wheat, or rye – she went for the rye, The ham was grilled and served on toast. Definitely a sandwich enough for 2. I tasted it – was pretty good.
My Reuben on the other hand – eh, a little disappointing. I asked for easy sauce and extra kraut which the cook interpreted as all the sauce glopped on one half of the top piece of bread and scant bit on the other half. The corned beef was chopped up and scattered in the kraut. I think they put the kraut on the grill as it was a little drier and maybe chopped up a bit more than regular kraut on a Reuben – which I liked. I think what made this Reuben disappointing was the off brand Thousand Island or Russian dressing and the fake Swiss served on rye toast. (No matter what, white American cheese slices are simply not Swiss cheese!)
We both ordered a slice of pecan pie ala mode with butter pecan ice cream. The pie was served cold and would have tasted oh so much better warmed! I felt the crust was slightly underdone, but my sis liked it (and ate my crust).
Our waitress was super friendly. In fact, the other waitress was too – she stopped by to ask if we needed anything since she was checking on her table. We asked her for to-​go boxes since both sandwiches were quite ample, which she brought us right away. Our waitress kept our glasses full, even though we were drinking only water. At one point, the owner popped round to the tables to make sure all was happy n ok.
I think with a little tweaking to the some of the details, this place has a lot of potential. And I will say after a day on the Big Piney, hot food and friendly service is greatly appreciated! As is the modest pricing – full meal with dessert for $ 15 is a pretty fair deal!