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When Patterson notices a diner’s daily special, Carroll has him suddenly remember “chipped beef on toast — his favorite meal when he was a little boy. His mother made it for lunch every Saturday. Their tradition — just before noon he would prop up a portable metal tray in front of the television set and his mother would bring in the chipped beef on toast just as his favorite cartoons were about to start.”

Eating a waffle smothered in gravy, scallions and chipped beef at the bar, Mac Maley didn’t notice much of a difference after Philadelphia lifted the vaccine check requirement because compliance had been spotty when he went to bars and restaurants.

Appalachian food authority Ronni Lundi talks of chipped beef and gravy and tomato gravy in her cookbook “Victuals.”

“We can litigate, we can legislate, but who’s building the alternative?” he asked during lunch over chipped beef in downtown St. Francis, Kan. “So I felt compelled. I’ve got to build the alternative. I can’t be such a loudmouth and such a critic of this existing system without giving people an alternative.”

It’s one of the last of the genuine joints, serving up eggs, hash browns, pancakes, chipped beef and dozens of other gut-busting, artery-lining entrees.