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Why we can't have nice things, 3 a.m. bathroom break edition

The South Street Diner used to let anybody use its restrooms, but now limits the facilities to just customers, because of a September tussle between owner Sol Sidell and a pair of recalcitrant women from Brockton.

Siddell had to appear before the Boston Licensing Board yesterday because one of the women told police he choked her and dragged her outside around 3 a.m. on Sept. 2.

With his lawyer by his side, however, Sidell told a different story:

When one of the women asked if she could use a restroom, he agreed, but told her only one person at a time in the small restrooms. When the women went in, then called to her friend to join her - despite what he'd just told her - he had enough. "I told them they had to beat it," he said. When the woman in the can refused - and then spit at him and raised her hands - he said, he put his hand on her shoulder and led her about six feet away, where, he said, a diner security guard took her outside.

He denied choking or dragging her.

Because of the incident, he said, only customers are now allowed relief.

Neither woman attended the hearing. The licensing board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take on the complaint.

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Comments

I remember the original, pe-hipster Blue Diner of the very early 80s which was an actual diner. I worked in the area and frequently ate lunch there. At some point it changed hands, and although it retained the name, it became a hipster or "ironic" version of a diner, and in the process they ruined the food and raised the prices. Later it became the South Street Diner which continued on with the hipster, ironic conception of a diner. But I'll take the original any day, with it's "End of Pike Special" which was two greasy burgers and thin-cut fries for something like $3.

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how is it a hipster diner? what is an ironic diner....?

I think of it more like an "everything else is closed" diner

It's not the best food, but it's not very expensive considering how the surrounding area has cleaned up a lot, and the fact that after 3 AM they could charge $20 a plate and still make money

I love people like you who quote prices from the 80s as if they were the best deal in town. Inflation has crippled the US Dollar; your $3 special would cost over 3x what it did, probably much more.

The people who work there put up with a lot of bullshit from drunk patrons and the crackheads who hang around south station/chinatown/south end.

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According to BLS, $3 1980 is $8.24 today. Sounds about right. Looking at the overall table, it seems much of the increase came in the hyperinflation years of the early 1980s. After 1982, inflation gets down to about 4% until the 90s where it falls to 2 or 3%. This continues until the recent recession where the inflation rate dips underneath 2% and even goes negative at -0.4% in 2009.

If by "early 80s" the OP meant 1983, then the buying power of $3 then drops to $6.82 now.

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I really want to know what this dipstick thinks is so "ironic" about South St? I went to college in the deep south, visited many disgusting diners, as well as our special brand up north and I am baffled as to what this comment means. So the jukebox must remain like the waffle house selection: Marty Robbins, Cash, Waylon, Merle? WTF? Hipsters are just young kids. It is not a lifestyle, it's a F-CKING DINER!

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The price of a burger and pancakes in 1991 as the Blue Diner was $10 equal or more than they are now at South Street diner verified by Don Levy former owner He considered himself and upscale diner, and for hipsters when you were young, you were a rockstar now your a suburbanite who can't find parking downtown, All are welcome at SSD gay or straight, old or young, rich or poor, of all colors and races. alon your a goof

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the South street diner prices are less than were in the 80's verified by Don levy former owner, As for hipsters all are welcome old and young, rich or poor, gay or straight, and all races it seems like you now our a suburbanite that you can't find parking down town and when you were young 30 years ago you were a rock star now you look at others and complain they are hipsters. If a hipster is wanting to have fun, enjoy good food with a cute waitress make me an over weight hipster middle age hipster.

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If they were recalcitrant women, they better be careful: they could have brittle bone disease when they get older!

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The South Street Diner, when it was the Blue Diner, was featured in a 1980s movie called "Hiding Out" featuring Jon Cryer as a Boston stockbroker who avoids gangsters by pretending to be a high school student. I think they even had bullets coming through the window of the diner. It was a pretty awful movie. very 1980s.

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