Diesel and Duke is located at 39 Glenridge Ave. in Montclair, New Jersey. Photo by Tunmise Odufuye
Cheap you say?
As we wind down the time we have until the end of the school year, food consumption will be critical for mental stability and for us students, it better be “cheap” if we are going to survive the course work blitz our professors are about to give us. Now that word “cheap” often receives negative connotations from the masses, based on experiences accumulated in the modern consumer era, such as shopping on Amazon or eBay. Just type the word “cheap” into the search bar on eBay to refresh your memory.
Although negativity shadows the word like a scarlet letter, that doesn’t seem to be the case for us college students. We have to find the best deals on anything when it comes to our spending. We are already giving an arm and a leg for tuition, so funds are scarce and we don’t want to use our part-time money to splurge on meals at The Cheesecake Factory in the middle of the week when a seven-page paper is due. This is why a place like Diesel and Duke is perfect for Montclair State students. A burger and fries will run you around $10; it’s new, and it’s cheap. Oh, and they deliver as well. What more do you need?
Hand-cut fries and “The Standard.” Photo by Tunmise Odufuye
Sunday, 12 p.m. I’m surfing Instagram foodie accounts and I come across one of the most beautiful photos ever involving a Martin roll. It was Diesel and Duke’s “The Diesel” burger, a behemoth sandwich consisting of two fresh burger patties, cheddar cheese (which can be substituted for some aged cheddar goodness), bacon, jalapenos, caramelized onions, onion rings, barbecue sauce and, last but not least, chipotle mayo. All for $10. What a steal!
Surfing through their Instagram page (@eatdiesel), I found out that they just opened up an establishment in Montclair on the corner of Bay Street and Glenridge Avenue, a few blocks from my house. The enticing feeling to ruin my stomach with this amazing food just kept getting better and better. By 4:30 p.m., I was ordering “The Standard,” which has a patty (which I switched for chicken), American cheese, Bibb lettuce, tomato, aioli and good ol’ ketchup. Hand-cut fries were also tallied onto my bill. It was cheap too, 10 dollars in total. Student’s galore if you ask me.
By Wednesday, I was ordering the same thing, but with beef this time around, and our town-made beverage—Joe Tea.
Joe Tea from Diesel and Duke is half lemonade and half iced tea. Photo by Tunmise Odufuye
Side-note incoming: For this new establishment to carry Joe Tea is a testament to how eager Diesel and Duke is to call Montclair “home.” For anyone reading out there, Joe Tea is the staple beverage for Montclair. If you’ve lived in Montclair and have not had a Joe Tea, you haven’t lived in Montclair at all. Joe Tea is a thumbs-up to small business in Montclair and it has expanded in
places from New York City to China. Thank you, Diesel and Duke, for assimilating into Montclair perfectly. Now, back to the food.
What did “cheap” get me on this fine Wednesday? It got me a nice, lovely burger that sat blissfully between a warm Martin roll. The burger was well done, but still had a juicy texture to it. SpongeBob would be so proud of “The Standard.” His googly eyes would light up at the sight of me sinking my two front gapped teeth into the sandwich, watching the aioli sauce squirt everywhere as I squeezed the burger with authority.
The hand cut fries were no joke either. Doused in the right amount of salt, the fries only added assurance that this place was perfect for students waiting to wake their tired brains and empty stomachs up from mountains of work ahead. ‘Tis the season to a get burger for a reason. They also throw in free fried oreos if you check into Facebook when you get there. Sweet!
For those of you stuck on campus, Diesel and Duke offers delivery as well. Too bad the poor delivery boy won’t find parking on campus, but that’s a topic for another day. For now, please do yourselves a favor and go grab a bite to eat from Diesel and Duke.
Diesel and Duke is located at:39 Glenridge Ave. Montclair, N.J 07042
