What is that song Toms Diner about?
The “Tom’s Diner” of the song is Tom’s Restaurant in New York City, which was later fictionalized as Monk’s Cafe in Seinfeld.[2] Many argue that Vega was referring to TOM’s Restaurant in Prospect Heights Brooklyn.[who?] This is incorrect, as Ms. Vega has never even been to the one in Brooklyn.[citation needed] The song is written as a simple first person vignette of a person stopping at an unnamed diner for a cup of coffee. The song notes the newspaper, and the women who come and go in the diner, outside in the rain. The ringing of bells at a nearby cathedral cause the singer to reminisce on an unnamed companion and a picnic previously. Coffee finished, it is time to leave the diner to catch a train. Vega wrote the song based on a comment by her friend Brian Rose, a photographer, who mentioned that in his work, he sometimes felt as if “he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and […] like he was the witness to a lot of things, but was never really involved in them.” She attempt
