Is There Hope for an Old Diner in Salisbury, Mass.?

From Mick Melvin:

My wife, Amy, and I were going to a wedding in Amesbury, Mass., and came across Pat's Diner in neighborhing Salisbury. After doing a little research, I found out that it was a great place to stop. The owner, Patricia Poulakos Archambault, was the beloved owner of Pat's Diner. She was proud of her Greek heritage and loved serving her Greek specialties.

From Wikipedia: "The diner was built in 1950 as #824 by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, as a custom job for James and Ann Evans. They had opened their first diner in Haverhill, also called Ann's Diner, in 1948, and moved it to the present site later that year. The business was successful enough that they ordered the present diner as a replacement. It was specifically designed to accommodate a separate dining room, and was opened in April 1950. The Evanses owned the business until 1960, after which it went through a succession of owners. From 1976 to 1987 it was owned by Norman Brockelbank and known as Norm's Place. The diner was closed between 1997 and 1999. In 1999 it was acquired by...Archambault, who restored it and reopened it...."

The diner struggled through the pandemic, and when Pat passed away in 2021, the diner closed.

From reading online comments about Pat's Diner, it was a great place to eat and Pat treated her customers like family. It would have been a great place to experience.

Not sure whether the diner can be saved or if it will be demolished.

Woburn's Lanna Thai Diner is Adorable

From Dave Brigham:

When doing research ahead of my trek through downtown Woburn, Mass. (see February 24, 2024, "Woo! Woo! It's Woburn Time!"), I followed what has become a regular practice: I poked around to see if there was a diner or old theater in town. Yes to the former, no to the latter. So after checking out the area around Woburn Common, I headed due north under I-95 to Lanna Thai Diner.

From MACRIS: "The only diner in Woburn, Main Street Diner is important architecturally in Massachusetts as one of the first diners the Worcester Lunch Car Company produced with a stainless steel exterior. Custom-built in 1952 for this site, Main Street Diner (formerly known as Stella's Diner and originally known as Jack's Diner) is quite small given its period of construction and the fact that it was built to seat thirty to thirty-two people. The diner is also distinctive for combining a largely stainless steel exterior with largely wood finishes on the interior."

This place has been Lanna since 2011, according to Wikipedia. The MACRIS report dates to 1999.

Isn't Lanna just adorable? I hope it lasts a long time.

Will This Pig Ever Serve Bacon Again?

From Dave Brigham:

I drive by the long-abandoned Pig 'n' Whistle Diner in Boston's Brighton neighborhood with some regularity. After a recent photo jaunt through neighboring Allston, I stopped to shoot this place. Longtime readers will recall that I featured this former eatery in the early days of the blog (see September 18, 2010, "Pig Out"). If this post served no purpose other than to showcase better photos than the one I took more than 11 years ago, that would be enough. But thanks to a diner guru who I follow on Instagram, and who follows me, I learned some background on this place.

Built in 1952 by Mountain View Diners, an outfit based in New Jersey from 1938 until 1957, this restaurant was first operated as Circle Diner in Watertown Square, according to Richard Gutman, "Curator, Author and Expert on All Things Diner," per his web site. The go-to guy for all things diner, Gutman has written four books on this uniquely American eateries, including American Diner Then and Now and Worcester Lunch Car Company.

In a conversation on Instagram, Gutman said he's not sure when this diner moved to Brighton. It closed unexpectedly in 2002, and has sat abandoned ever since. The original owners have been dead a long time, according to Gutman. Their descendants still own the diner, apparently, and have tried to sell it over the years.

In September 2017, Pig 'n' Whistle owner Robert Zoffreo said he planned to renovate and reopen the diner. Well, that didn't happen. Zoffreo still owns the site, according to the City of Boston's assessing department. Squeezed between a Gulf gas station and a CVS parking lot, this site is small and would likely be difficult to redevelop.

If the diner isn't reopened, the best the world can hope for is that someone buys the building and moves it again. And for God's sakes - save that sign!

Stay tuned....

For more posts about diners, see below:

August 19, 2020, "Nailing a Great Find in Wareham"

January 9, 2020, "Southie Loses More Eateries"

Wednesday, July 28, 2010, "Two Hearts Beat As One"

March 18, 2010, "Eat, Dance & Be Happy"