The Diner // Vegetable Soup + Cheese Toast
Babette responds to an invitation and makes a discovery.
Welcome back to Babette’s! Can’t keep away, huh? I wonder if it’s the cooking or the cliffhangers.
The last time we talked, Babette had just squared off in the parking lot against a ravenous shadow creature. She was a little surprised to find herself alive and in one piece after it finally left her alone. But then, something even stranger happened. All the lights in and around the building came on at once. It felt almost like someone had been watching, and this—the lights—were a signal that judgment was about to be passed.
When the door of the no longer abandoned-looking diner opened, slowly, deliberately, as if in invitation, Babette stared. She’d had a long day even before she got chased down the highway by a mobile nightmare, and the tired, footsore parts of her were pleading, no more mysteries today, thank you. But courtesy was important to her. She didn’t want whoever had issued the invitation to think she was rude.
Plus, she was curious.
The jukebox was on her left as she entered, still playing the cheerful, familiar song. Babette walked carefully past the booths, through the swinging door, to the work area behind the soda counter. Another set of swinging doors led from there into the kitchen. All the lights were on in the front of the house, but the kitchen was dark, and from what Babette could see, much too large for the space available.
Deep inside the kitchen darkness sat a vintage 1940s Crosley refrigerator, painted mint green, and glowing with an unearthly light that illuminated everything around it.
Babette backed all the way up and caught her breath. To walk willingly into the presence of that glowing light was to consent to the presence of the otherworldly in her life in a way she was not certain would be wise. On the other hand, it was just a refrigerator. And there was something beautiful about how the green light was reflecting off all the polished metal surfaces, like an aurora borealis, shrunk down to kitchen size. She didn’t feel threatened. Her curiosity was getting stronger by the second.
Babette took a deep breath, touched her hair, and entered the kitchen. The Crosley purred welcomingly as she approached. Her hand seemed to move of its own accord, reaching for the refrigerator’s large silver handle. The door opened under her touch with a gentle hiss or releasing pressure. The weird green light brightened as she bent to peer inside with wondering eyes.
What she found inside the Crosley is known only to Babette. But if you hang around here for long enough, one day, she might let you taste something she made out of the private ingredient stash she keeps there. People say the taste experience is just out of this world.
A couple of months later, Babette’s Fancy Diner opened for business.
It’s a pretty unusual diner, for a few reasons. For one thing, the energy it runs on doesn’t come from the power grid. On paper the diner seems to operate at a steady loss. (Babette gives away a lot of food.) Yet somehow, the staff are all handsomely compensated for their skills and labor. It’s really more of a co-op, although Babette is unquestionably the proprietress, and always sets the menu.
Famously, of course, anyone with an appetite can eat at Babette’s for free if they’re short on cash. Something older and better than money is being transacted when she feeds people. Something with real value. Money is imaginary; the bond that forms when a hungry soul meets someone willing to feed them is anything but. The free lunch special has been on the menu since the day Babette’s opened its doors, and it’ll stay there till they close for good.
Between the hours of midnight and 6 am, the diner gets a little harder to find if you’re a local coming from town. Some people manage, of course. Usually it’s kids looking for a place to just exist until their thoughts aren’t made of so many sharp edges, or night shift employees who haven’t seen their families for so long that loneliness is eating them hollow, or long haul truckers who know from experience that when the shadows start racing down the highway beside you, it’s time to take the exit that always leads to Babette’s Fancy Diner. She never charges for coffee after dark.
Every few nights, someone new comes tearing into the parking lot like the hounds of hell are after them. Wild-eyed and rumpled, they sit and twitch in their booth until someone comes along and pours their coffee and brings them some of Babette’s food. By the time they make it to dessert, they’re alright again. No one and nothing bothers them at Babette’s. Nothing follows them when they leave.
You hear that? Nothing else is going to come after you. Catch your breath and eat your food while it’s still hot.
Today, Babette is serving: The Vegetable Soup + Cheese Toast Lunch Special
Who doesn't want soup and cheese and bread on a chilly spring day? This is a vegetable soup, but there are only a few veggies in it. Broth is the star of the show here. Babette uses her own stock as a base for all her soups, but you can use bouillon and the results will still be delicious. The vegetables are diced into tiny pieces so the textures are uniform. The broth is savory, soft and velvety in the mouth but still light, no heavier than tea with milk. Fresh herbs added after cooking make it taste like springtime, and if you fry up some chicken sausage in a pan and add it in after cooking, you’ve got some protein (but that’s completely optional.) The cheese toast is not optional, unless you prefer to take your bread with butter and your cheese in a rustic hunk on the side. But you must have all three. The combination of hot soup + bread + cheese is sacred.
This has been the lunch special.
Don't forget to take a mint from the dish by the register on your way out. Printed inside the wrapper is a secret message from the kitchen.
You don’t need a cauldron to make magic, just a stockpot of sufficient size.