Here’s a photo taken several years ago of Pennsylvania’s Coventry Diner, a later Silk City which has undergone remodeling.
The four windows on the right are part of an addition. From that part left is the original diner.
Coventry Diner
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Monthly Archives: April 2009
Worcester’s Mac’s Diner Burns
Mac’s Diner Burns – Article in the Telegram
By Scott J. Croteau TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
scroteau@telegram.com
WORCESTER — For the half-dozen times a month Bob Hebb heads into Worcester from his hometown of Ayer, he makes sure to head over to Shrewsbury Street.
His destination is Mac’s Diner, where a large kettle of soup usually beckons and the stools are filled with patrons he knows by name.
But yesterday, Mr. Hebb arrived at his favorite restaurant only to learn that an overnight fire had damaged and closed the business.
The owners of the restaurant — which dates to 1931 — are unsure when they’ll reopen.
“You have never eaten in here? They have a kettle of soup that is about this high,” Mr. Hebb said, holding his hands a couple of feet apart. “I don’t know where I’m going to eat.”
As Mr. Hebb was left wondering where he’d get his usual soup and a sausage sandwich — made on the diner’s homemade bread — a crew of city Department of Public Works and Parks workers headed to the entrance at 185 Shrewsbury St.
Mr. Hebb soon informed them of the situation: “It’s closed. There was a fire.”
About noon yesterday, owner Chris McMahon of Holden walked around inside the diner and assessed the damage. Mac’s is said to be the oldest diner in the city.
He doesn’t know when it will reopen.
“I couldn’t even guess. I’m at the mercy of the Fire and Building departments,” he said. “Hopefully not that long. I have to make a living.”
The fire started about 12:30 a.m. in a storage area in the rear of the building, where there are freezers and refrigerators.
Mr. McMahon said the cause of the fire appears to be electrical but fire officials have not yet determined the cause.
Firefighters broke through a front window and doused the flames with water.
The upper diner area was damaged as well as a side area. The acrid smell of burnt wood replaced the normal smell of home-cooked meals yesterday afternoon.
The damage could have been worse, but the diner’s concrete and brick walls didn’t give the fire much to feed on. Holden police knocked on Mr. McMahon’s door early yesterday morning to notify him about the fire.
He raced down to Shrewsbury Street.
“When I first showed up here, I was in total shock,” he said. “I have come to assess it. It’s manageable, but it is definitely going to set us back.”
“In 78 years, we’ve never had a fire here,” Mr. McMahon, 31, said.
“We plan to fix it as soon as we can because we are all going to be out of money.”
Customers continually called the diner yesterday asking if the owners needed help and to say they were sorry. The diner is normally open Monday through Friday for lunch, with dinner also served Thursday through Saturday.
Many customers favor Mac’s because of its BYOB standing.
“April, May and June are our busy season,” Mr. McMahon said.
“It’s not a good financial time, and our employees are also out of work. We’re missing out on our money time.”
Mac’s Diner is/was a 1931 Worcester Diner.
Red Rose Diner
Red Rose Diner in Towanda Borough under new ownership
BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN
STAFF WRITER
Published: Thursday, April 2, 2009 3:16 AM EDT
TOWANDA — The Red Rose Diner, now a Towanda landmark, is under new ownership.
Michael Holt and Bill O’Shea, both from Buck County, bought the 82-year-old diner on Feb. 18, and they held a grand re-opening of the eatery on Wednesday, Holt said.
Holt said he has expanded the hours of the diner so that it stays open until the early evening on Wednesdays through Saturdays, and plans to add items to the menu.
“We’ll put a flower garden and flower boxes around the building,” he said.
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Holt is a self-described “diner fanatic” who says he spent years looking for an historic diner to buy and operate, before he decided to buy the Red Rose Diner. He said that he visited approximately 50 diners in his quest to find the right one.
He had read about the Red Rose Diner in books on diners, but did not know it was for sale when he visited it for the first time last summer.
He said he was extremely impressed with what he saw.
“I would have offered to buy it,” Holt said. “I liked it that much. (But) it turned out it was for sale (anyway).”
Holt said he and O’Shea will keep the name “Red Rose Diner,” and have no plans to move the diner from Towanda.
“I love that it’s on Route 6,” he said. “We were fortunate enough to find that it’s in a really special town. We’ll never move it.”
Betty Roof will continue to work at the diner, and she will be doing most of the cooking, Holt said.
“Most of the original features of the diner are still here,” including the stools, marble tabletops and counter tops, mosaic tile floor, stained glass windows, the tile and oak on the interior walls, grill, refrigerator and telephone, Holt said. “It’s an absolute gem in that respect.”
The previous owner, Gordon Tindall, had bought the diner in 1998 and restored it in Lancaster County. Tindall then moved the diner to Towanda, where it opened for business several years ago.
Holt said that last summer, he had talked to George Metropoulos Jr., the 92-year-old son of the original owner of the diner, who had seen the diner after it was restored.
Metropoulos, who used to work at the diner himself, said “the diner looked exactly the way he remembered it,” according to Holt.
Holt said he is applying to have the Red Rose Diner listed on the National Register of Historic Places, partly because of its role in expanding diners to accommodate women.
According to a written statement on the diner’s menu, “it was the first model designed to entice women (to come to the diner). The little tables were added for the ladies and stained glass windows afforded female customers privacy from oglers out on the sidewalk.”
Holt said he has an interest in things that are historic. He said he served on the board of directors of Peddler’s Village in Bucks County, which is “like a little Colonial Williamsburg,” including restored buildings and buildings that were constructed to look historic.
“I’ve always been in the hospitality and restaurant business,” said Holt, who now lives in Towanda.
The Red Rose Diner is located at 526 Main St. in Towanda.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.
Diner Hunter 