The new Friedmans on Greenwich and North Moore has taken the best of a diner and ditched the rest. The furnishings are all an elevated riff on the vinyl and velour and mirrored bar that lives in your mind as the quintessential diner furnishings; the menu has all the usual highlights (meatloaf, fried chicken, tuna melt) but compressed into one page; there are an ample number of booths to watch the world go by. They keep modified diner hours: 9a to 9p.

Sure, these are not exactly diner prices, but what diner ever fit that bill in Tribeca? (RIP to Gee Whiz, but that was still a $12 plate of buttered pasta.) The cobb salad is $22; the roasted salmon is $32. A glass of wine is $16. There is no major reinventing of the wheel here, and that’s why it’s so relaxing.

I will just eat the chicken lettuce wraps every time. But everyone else loved the meatloaf topped with warm tomato relish. The spinach is sauteed with garlic, the only way to do it. Portions are big. This is solid, reliable food.

They have a separate breakfast and lunch menu that goes all day — ricotta pancakes, avocado toast, chicken and waffles, BELTs.

This is the eighth Friedmans in the city — they are family owned and opened their first restaurant in the Chelsea Market in 2009. Everything on the menu can be served gluten free (though the kitchen is not gluten free) since the daughter in the family has celiac disease. (Friedmans was named after the economist 1960s Milton Friedman who popularized the phrase, “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”.) And of course they have Suram next door, and Friedmans/Wei West in the Goldman breezeway among others around the city.

The space, which was renovated originally by the Tribeca owner of Caliza, has an elevated (literally) sidewalk cafe that is partly covered and a private room in the back with sliding doors. The architects eliminated the raised part of the dining room — not sure why that was there to begin with. The bar is the entire length of the south side. There’s cocktails, draft beers and a limited number of wines by the glass and bottle.

PS: They are serving a fixed-price turkey plate on Thanksgiving all day starting at 11a.

Friedmans
378 Greenwich at North Moore
646-476-3884
Sunday to Thursday, 9a to 9p
Friday + Saturday, 9a to 9:30p