Spring is nearly here. The greening scent surrounds us. Birds flutter through budding trees and chirp at the coming warmth. Although cool showers are predicted for Sunday, today is a brilliant, blue-sky day 
with the temperature expected to reach 70°. At 2 AM, it will be time to set our clocks forward and spring into Daylight Savings Time, an idea first conceived of by Benjamin Franklin in the dawn of our nation’s history. All in all, an ideal morning to sample a fresh new restaurant.
Diner 248 opened recently on Highway 248 between Nazareth and Easton. It sits across the road from the Hampton Inn, and occupies the former Jack Creek Steakhouse. With fresh paint outdoors and in, varnished wood tables, tasteful floral carpeting and muted colors, the restaurant is both warm and inviting. As we stepped inside, a cheerful hostess greeted us and showed us to a booth near a back window.
Our waitress introduced herself with a smile and left us with two menus. 
She returned quickly with hot black coffee served in tall white mugs. The breakfast menu at Diner 248 features an interesting selection. From a meatlovers omelette to three types of Eggs Benedict to Peach Melba and Banana Nut pancakes, there’s something for all. I was delighted to see Stuffed French Toast on the menu, three versions. After first eating it at Morgan’s Restaurant a few weeks ago, I was tempted to order it again, as a comparison. Maybe next visit. Today my taste buds called for savory rather than sweet so I ordered a simple omelette.
As we waited, we flipped through pages of the local news. Of special note – Penn State-Lehigh Valley, now in Fogelsville, will move into the closing Lehigh Valley College in Center Valley. This doubles the space for Penn State-LV. It also puts it on public transportation routes. A good move for the Valley!
Within minutes our waitress brought our food. 
M. had ordered orange juice, traditional Eggs Benedict – toasted English muffins topped with Canadian bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. His eggs were nicely cooked, not hard as can happen if the chef isn’t watchful. Not a problem here – 248′s chef is skilled. My omelette was flavorful with finely chopped broccoli and the right amount of melted cheddar. Both orders came with browned home fries. Only warmer plates might have improved the otherwise most satisfying meal. Service was great. Our waitress was friendly, attentive, and kept our coffee mugs filled.
Our bill came to just under $17 (plus tip) for Eggs Benedict with home fries, a broccoli cheddar omelette with home fries and toast, one glass of orange juice, and two coffees with ample refills.
Diner 248 is located at 3701 Easton Nazareth Highway (Route 248), Easton, Pennsylvania. Phone – 610-252-4300. The diner serves breakfast from 6 AM to 2 PM daily. While there, we glanced at their lunch and dinner menu. It shows an intriguing variety of sandwiches, gyros, salads, entrees, and other dishes. We plan to return soon!
Sara
7 comments
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October 12, 2010 at 10:35 am
Colin
My family eats breakfast at this diner every Sunday. The food is always good, their Rye bread is fabulous, and the servers are always very friendly. I highly recomment this restaurant. I have also had lunch there and it was always good. I agree at times, some hostesses can be rude, but overall, this is a great place. I would go here over Perkins, who is very pricey, any day of the week.
June 28, 2010 at 5:38 am
Sara
Thank you for your comments, Kenny – and others. Your experiences tend to mirror our own.
On a lunch visit last summer the hostess started to seat us at a nice booth when another hostess (just coming on duty?) appeared and rudely said she’d promised that booth to someone else. She moved us to a table along the back wall. It was over 5 minutes before the couple she’d promised it to appeared. Although food was okay, the overall service on that visit was poor.
Because a close friend raves about Diner 248, we gave it another chance last winter. This time service was fine. I think they have a few bad apples among the staff since it seems so hit-and-miss on service.
I do agree the food is a bit overpriced. Breakfast in the Valley Allentown restaurants
June 27, 2010 at 8:57 pm
kenny gills
OVERPRICED and SNOBBY..
Too rude…
Seem to cost too much.
Food ok, but overated.
Belittled their staff in front of me.
December 23, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Froboz
Like a lot of other people I really enjoy diner food. My son and I tried this RESTAURANT on a Tuesday night.
First impressions, they had re-used the space that once was Jack Creek, well. The setup was not over crowded. The staff did seem a bit stand offish as was reported in another patron.
Our order. We both selected the Hot Roast Beef Sandwich on white bread, as well as a crock of French Onion soup.
You can tell a good French Onion soup by the darkness and clarity of the both. This one was cloudy and a light brown. Upon tasting the soup we concluded that the lack of clarity was the result of pepper and i believe tarragon. Half way through the soup we both decided that the overwhelming amount of pepper was added as an indicator to stop the consumer from eating all of their soup.
When our Hot Roast Beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy arrived it was a very generous portion. Digging into the mashed potatoes it was easy to see that these were made from real potatoes and not from a box. They had the taste of real mashed potatoes that were made a day or so before and have been stored in fridge. This would explain the clumpy texture instead of smooth creamy potatoes.
We also noticed something else very familiar about the potatoes, the same zest for pepper that had been present in the French Onion soup. No amount of gravy was going to hide that much pepper.
The roast beef was cooked medium to just slightly medium well. It was a bit tough, probably due to the way it had been cut. Both my son and i decided not to eat the bloody white bread that was on the bottom. I have never had a hot roast beef sandwich like this at any other diner, hopefully we won’t in the future.
This Diner was one we will visit twice. First, and last time. Eater be ware.
June 1, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Will
This place is a bit pricey and I felt the staff to be a bit stand-offish. I also had the feeling that I was been yelled at when I was asked how many people were in my party. Finally, they really should rename the place from 248 Diner to 248 Restaurant since they do not offer breakfast all day. Every diner I’ve ever visited made it a point to tell you that breakfast was served all day.
May 27, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Jess
You absolutely need to eat their Strawberry stuffed french toast. I’m pretty sure you’ll be blogging about it right after! I eat it every time we go, and lately, it’s been every week!!
I agree with the pepper stuff…I never ate chicken croquettes with green pepper until then. I ate them and they were good if you like green pepper. They do make real mashed potatos which I find hard to find in diners.
March 27, 2009 at 2:52 pm
dinerlover
As a person who loves going to diners I could not wait for this one to open. The atmosphere and servers were wonderful. However I had two complaints. First was the chefs love of pepper. (heavy green pepper in the New England clam chowder), Heavy red pepper flakes in their spaghetti sauce. For someone with a delicate stomach I would say be warned. Second is that a diner to me has breakfast all day. As someone who goes specifically to diners for that reason I would love to see that happen at Diner 248.