Given our nostalgia for “Mad Men”-era Manhattan, it’s surprising that the people at Chock Full O'Nuts, who just opened a new, revival location on West 23rd Street, didn’t try to recreate the sleepy, inward, atmosphere of that classic city diner.

The coffee at the new Chock isn’t bad, and the donuts are great, but the interior, with it’s blank walls, and small wood tables and chairs, looks like the inside of any chain coffee shop.  Why didn’t the designers build a long counter along the length of the shop, at least, and light the place with neon?  The only part of the store that feels right is the cake display, a vitrine filled with voluptuous cream pies and layer cakes that really do look like they’re from another era.

(Photo by Michael Evans for The New York Times, 1969.)