The early crowd at the Hollywood Diner ("Where the customer is the star") was unmoved by Buffett, a fixture with his usual order of chicken-fried steak with extra mashed potatoes.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Dozens of rocking chairs adorn front porches where diners idle while waiting for tables and others chew on toothpicks and bask in the afterglow of a plate of biscuits and gravy, chicken-fried steak or similar country-themed cuisine.

FORBES: Relax In Your Rocker, Snack On Cracker Barrel's Tasty Dividend

Around our house, when not infected by the Birdseye plague, real food often meant chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and cream gravy, sugar peas, field peas, black-eyed peas, lima beans, green beans, all greens, ambrosia, okra, corn, tomato aspic, squash casseroles, pot roast, fried fish, chicken and dumplings, hot rolls, biscuits, cornbread, cakes, pies, fudge, divinity and Mama's homemade vegetable soup, which was world famous in our family.

NPR: Linda Ellerbee, Taking 'Big Bites'

That three-man luncheon of chicken fried steak and cherry shakes was destined to become a larger affair.

FORBES: 400: How Reinvention Sprang From a Diner In Omaha and Library Full of Billionaires - Forbes