In a conversation friday with some friends, we discussed a get together in Indiana.

I immediately thought Teibels. Mostly because of two things: Location. I travel all over the got-damned place seeing other people, for once I’d like to meet the folks at MY convenience.

Now, as for Teibels itself:Started in 1929, you were hard pressed to find a truck driver that didn’t know this place. The dinner menu hasn”t changed much in all that time.

This has had some repercussions. Teibels has remained constant, their food choices and service remaining constant through the years, and some people, looking for variety, have wandfered off to other places- still, if you want a good home cooked style meal, you’ll slide on in.

Teibels has also developed a strong following. So much so that men and women who have been eating there since childhood still show up for sunday dinner. Some of them are now in their 80’s. It’s doubly appropriate, then, that the waitresses wear the equivalent of white nurses uniforms, minus the funny sister bertrille hats. Any given sunday, you can find at least one ambulance pulled up in front of tiebels because a senior got dizzy during the relish course, and had to be toted off to Saint Margaret Mercy.

Ah, yes, the waitresses. There’s a whole thing about tiebels, waitresses, because they all dress the same, tight white (in the main hall) or dark blue (in the coffee shop) women with actual curves, and nice dispositions, who deal with cranky seniors all sunday afternoon, and ham-handed truckers and travellers through the week. From the slender to the rubinesque, I love them all. Always one of my favorite places, even if only for the chicken livers, stop by if you want a real meal, corner of US 30 and US 41.