LGBT Book, Film & Video Blog

By Gary Kramer
Published: March 10, 2005

In 1981, Steve Sorrentino, a gay man living in New York City, returned to his conservative hometown in West Long Branch, NJ to take over his family’s luncheonette after his father became paralyzed. The experiences, detailed in his heartfelt and engaging new book, Luncheonette, involved putting his life, dreams, and even his sexuality on hold as he made porkroll-egg-and-cheese sandwiches—using “the New Jersey state meat”—for various offbeat customers. “I have a lot of affection for the people mentioned in the book, despite the fact that I was so unhappy and irritable at the time,” Sorrentino says, on the phone from his New York apartment. “I did love the constancy of the work, the routine. It was comforting seeing the same people all the time. People get on your nerves some days; you love them others. It’s like friends and family.”

To write the book, the author changed the names of the personalities and made composites of others to protect their true identities. In addition, he condenses the time frame of some of the events, but everything described is “authentic” to the author’s experiences. He even recalls writing his waitress Dolores’ “zingers” on kitchen checks in preparation for writing the book.

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