Heavenly Hash

While customers pining for the past may opt for the toasted Fluffernutter (peanut butter and marshmallow fluff) sandwich or the chicken potpie, the diet-conscious have thin-crust pizzas and generous salads to choose from. We enjoyed a chicken walnut salad, which consisted of two scoops of creamy chicken salad spiked with diced walnuts, celery, and pineapple. It was served over impeccably fresh mixed lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, and hard-boiled eggs. Out of kilter was the syrupy raspberry vinaigrette. (I prefer to save my sweet tooth for dessert.)

While cakes and pies aren't made on the premises, we weren't about to deprive ourselves of some empty calories. A slice of cheesecake encrusted with caramel, chocolate, and pecans was sinfully rich, while a sour cream-and-walnut, deep-dish apple pie, served warm, was redolent with cinnamon. Vanilla ice cream melted into the buttery streusel topping of the apple pie.

Though it's easy to overindulge with desserts like the "kitchen sink" -- a conglomeration of twelve scoops of ice cream, brownies, nuts, berries, bananas, Oreo cookies, and hot fudge (to name just a few of the ingredients) -- O'Brien and McKenna aren't aiming to be decadent. Their aspirations in Moscow were simple: to open a diner they could call home. Now that one of their diners calls South Florida home, it would be a good idea to get that particular house in order. A few improvements in the service area should do the job.

Starlite Diner. 6201 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954-938-1116. Open 24 hours daily.

Onion rings
$3.95

Baked Brie
$6.95

Pulled-pork sandwich
$6.95

Meat loaf
$8.95

Apple pie
$4.50