When you step into a diner in New Jersey, you are instantly hit with what scientists call “the most delicious smell ever crafted by mankind”, pork roll cooking on the grill. Sure, there are other things on the menu, but that magic meat is the only thing that matters. The next time you are in a NJ diner take a good look around…no one is even looking at the menu except out-of-staters. Because we already know what we want.

It’s no secret that Jersey loves its pork roll. Benjamin Franklin founded New Jersey on the tenet that, “In Pork Roll there is Wisdom, in Taylor Ham there is Freedom, NJ shall hold these truths to be self-evident.” A little-known fact outside of NJ tho is that all New Jersey diners are required by constitutional
amendment to serve pork roll in their establishment. Did you know that? It’s true. I am not making any of this up.

After the dark, tasteless years of prohibition (when pork roll had to go underground) then NJ Governor John Smallberries brought forth the legislation that would change NJ from the “Awesome State” to the “Garden State” because we lived in a garden of pork roll egg and cheese. The legislation passed unanimously (of course) and all NJ diners were required to carry PREC on the menu henceforth. And it was this sense of Jersey exceptionalism that fueled the spreading wildfire of Pork Roll expansion…within the state.

So whether you live in the pork roll state or are just visiting, make sure that you pay worship at one of New Jersey’s many denominational churches…the NJ Diner.