A Maine diner that became a national sensation after being featured on the popular Food Network is on the auction block.
“For more than 40 years, the Maine Diner has been serving up good meals to some locals and plenty of tourists looking for a taste of small town charm,” reports WCYY.com.
The listing includes the Maine Diner restaurant, the adjacent gift shop as well as the e-commerce business the diner generates.
Sales have been brisk for the diner but the current owner feels like it’s time to move on after 30 years at the head of the table, according to MaineBiz.biz.
WCYY calls it “one of Guy Fieri‘s favorite diners.”
Fieri famously saluted the diner on the Food Network in 2010 and the fallout has been enormous in terms of business even this many years later.
The celebrity chef “absolutely raved about the diner,” WCYY notes.
Fieri enjoyed a pair of signature classics during his visit to the diner – the lobster pie and seafood chowder.
Socrates “Louie” Toton, who had owned a diner in Boston, started the restaurant as a “retirement” gig in the early 1960’s.
“Louie, however, despised tourists so he would only open in the winter, once the tourists had gone home,” according to the establishment’s website.
“His idea of retirement was gardening,” it says, “and he bought the land on which the diner sits so he could cultivate the fine soil on the property into the garden that still thrives today.”
Myles and Dick Henry bought the diner in 1983.
The third and current owner, Jim MacNeill, took it over from the Henrys.
The diner reports it has served 8 million customers since it first opened, roughly 1,300 customers a day.
Besides being highlighted on the Food Network, it has been featured on NBC’s Today Show and WBZ’s Phantom Gourmet.
