In August, a year after a fire destroyed O'Rourke's Diner, the popular Main Street staple sat lifeless with plywood-covered windows and weeds poking through the roof.

But behind the scenes, a flurry of fundraising by those devoted to the diner's comeback gathered donations for the rebuilding effort.

Today, there are visible signs of a rebirth at the fire-ravaged Main Street restaurant, as volunteers do carpentry work and pour concrete on the eve of the rebuilding committee's latest fundraiser.

Larry Marino, co-chairman of the committee, said Thursday that patrons could be eating at the diner at the beginning of next year.

"We'd love to get there by Christmas," Marino said. "By year's end, we should be pretty close."

The Aug. 3, 2006, fire at O'Rourke's started when a hamburger steamer was left on overnight. The fire destroyed the inside of the glass-and-steel, dining-car-style restaurant in the city's North End, where it had served food since 1946.

Owner and chef Brian O'Rourke didn't have fire insurance, so loyal patrons and diner enthusiasts nationwide feared it would be the end of an icon. But since the fire, the diner has received a boost from people throughout the city and state, and from other parts of the nation.

Two mainstays of the Burlington-area restaurant scene reopened last week: the Parkway Diner in South Burlington after a change in management in March and Smokejacks in Burlington after an Aug. 2 fire.

The two eateries couldn't be more different in style and menu, but they both boast shiny, freshly cleaned interiors.

The historic Parkway Diner (658-1883) on Williston Road, an original 1953 Worcester diner car, has been owned by George Hatgen since 1975, but had been operated by the Alvanos family for a decade. In late March, the Alvanos's served their last diner meal and moved on to take ownership of the Pine Street Deli in Burlington when Hatgen and his son Peter Hatgigiannis decided to take back the diner's daily operations.

Adding a brand new prep kitchen and walk-in cooler to the back of the diner (along with two new restrooms) in addition to cleaning up the dining area with historic accuracy took longer than anticipated, they said. Although the counter and booths look much the same to the untrained eye, all has been scrubbed and refurbished from the original tile floor to new upholstery on the stools and booth benches.

Many items had to be ordered from New Jersey, the diner capital of the U.S., Hatgigiannis said Monday a week after he reopened the diner. "Trying to get the diner back to its beat was hard," he said.

The diner is open 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Schenectady, NY
Some of the salt-and-pepper shakers are still on the tables.

But everything else about the tiny art deco building on Erie Boulevard, from the water-stained pin-striped curtains to the sagging roof, shows obvious signs of wear.

The Silver Diner sits on the cusp of rubble piles generated from the demolition of the former Robinson furniture building on State Street. The city ordered an emergency demolition of Robinson last month after it was determined that the structure was unsound.

The 71-year-old diner, once comfort to the growling stomachs of countless General Electric workers, is not part of the demolition. But because the diner is so close, questions have been raised again about what to do with it.

Schenectady's economic development arm, Metroplex, announced Wednesday it will pay a Niskayuna construction firm $3,000 to determine whether the diner is salvageable.

The Laconia Historical and Museum Society will open its tastiest exhibition to date, "May I Take Your Order?: A History of Diners," on Thursday Oct. 25 at the Laconia Public Library.

Diners first appeared on the American scene in the form of horse-drawn lunch wagons in the 1870s. By the turn of the 20th century companies were producing hundreds of these food service wagons on wheels. Catering to late night factory workers and hungry night owls, the dining car (later shortened to 'diner') served up homemade comfort foods at an inexpensive cost.

By the 1950s, innovative modern design transformed the diner into a stainless steel, jukebox-blasting, neon dream. Today diners signify nostalgia for the past as well as excitement, great food, and hometown atmosphere.

"May I Take Your Order?" will be on display at the Laconia Public Library from Oct. 25 to April 26, 2008, during regular library hours. Exhibition displays will include diner-related artifacts on special loan from the American Diner Museum in Providence, Rhode Island, as well as items from the Shore Diner of Lakeport and Red Arrow Diner of Manchester.

The celebrities and the regulars come and go, but the look of Burlington's Oasis Diner hasn't changed much since its sturdy shell was slid over some greased railroad ties into a waiting foundation on Bank Street late in 1953.

Same counter, same tables, same grill, same refrigerator. Prices are higher, though.

"Used to be," said a white-haired man at the counter Monday, finishing a bowl of soup, "you were able to get a very nice lunch for less than a dollar."

That was well before President Clinton's time. In 1995, Clinton ordered a sliced turkey sandwich, a piece of apple pie and a Diet Coke, which would have come to about $6. Today, a chicken sandwich and fries are up to $7.95.

More changes are in store for the Oasis, starting with its ownership. The Lines family, which has run the diner for three generations, is selling the place. The closing date is Oct. 31. The new owner will be Glenn Walter, owner of the Three Needs tavern, just a block away on College Street. He plans to turn the Oasis into a sit-down New York-style deli -- "big, overstuffed sandwiches, corned beef, matzo ball soup ..." he said Monday -- sort of like Schwartz's in Montreal.

[Note: I applaud the idea, but I'm not sure there's much of a market for early-era lunch cars with limited seating. Am I just being a curmudgeon? In any event, check out the link to the article on the "read more" page, where you can see some nice photos. RJD]

Odd as it sounds, there is common ground between old diners in which people once shared coffee, eggs and companionship, and inner-city teenage males labeled wayward or delinquent and incarcerated at the R.I. Training School for Youth in Cranston.

That common ground is a patch of land behind the carpentry classroom at the Training School where the young men are now doing a full-fledged historic renovation of a vintage diner.

Formerly known as Hickey’s Diner of Taunton, it is the first of several defunct diners they will restore while learning an assortment of vocational trades, from metalworking to upholstering. Hickey’s, which belongs to the American Diner Museum, is expected to reopen as a functioning diner in Providence following the restoration.

A second eatery, the former Louis’s Diner of Concord, N.H., will be used by the Training School’s culinary arts program as a class laboratory. A third, Mike’s Diner, formerly located near the train station in Providence, will go on the road to promote the project.

By Jen Thomas | iBershires.com | October 2, 2007

Adams, MA
Local restaurateur Jae Chung is hoping to bring a little bit of his magic to the former Miss Adams Diner on Park Street. With hopes to open as early as next week, Chung will call his new restaurant "The Captain's Tavern" and serve fresh seafood for lunch and dinner.

"I want to bring seafood to the local community at a reasonable price," said Chung last week.

Named after his family's favorite restaurant in Miami, Chung plans to transform the lunch car diner from a 50s-themed eatery into an underwater fantasy. On Tuesday, the changes to the interior were already apparent, as local artist James Squires put the finishing touches on the walls, leaving only an octopus and a submarine left to be painted.

"We're hoping we'll be a standout because people will see the atmosphere and want to come back," said Chef and Manager Randall "Randy" Beaudoin.

Completed interior renovations include installing wood paneling to imitate the inside of a boat along the length of the lunch car, replacing old lighting fixtures with nautical lanterns and painting sharks, fish, mermaids and assorted other sea creatures on the blue walls.

Milford, NH
The new Milford Diner is scheduled to have a grand opening on Oct. 5, during the Pumpkin Festival. However, there will be an open-house style “soft opening” this Saturday.

The Milford Diner has been a fixture on the Oval since the early 1900s, but the building has undergone renovations or changed several times in recent years and since the owners of Toro — the upscale restaurant housed there for several months — mysteriously left town, it has been closed.

Now the owner of the Milford Fish Market, Debbie Flerra, and her business partner Gordon Maynard, are bringing back the diner and adjoining bar.

Food will include diner classics like meatloaf, shepherd’s pie and macaroni and cheese, although the menu will be limited until the diner staff gets up to speed, said Flerra.

The diner will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the lounge downstairs, called the Riversedge Bar and Restaurant, will open at 5 p.m.

This Saturday people are welcome to take a tour, but food may not be available all day.

Flerra, Maynard and their crew began working on the project more than a year ago.

It's community and atmosphere and regulars. It's historic character and comfortable booths and french fries. And, oh yeah, long hours. Really long, brutal hours.

Ask anyone what makes a diner a diner. You'll hear about the food, the building, and the history. But for all the enthusiasm, for all the nostalgia, diners are disappearing because they are so tough to run.

That's a problem Shrewsbury officials have wrestled with for 20 years. The town acquired the Edgemere Diner, a streamlined classic on Route 20, in 1987 because the owners stopped paying property taxes. After years of renting it out on short-term leases, two years at a time to start, the town decided this summer to offer a better deal. It tried to sell the diner car, made in 1948 by the Fodero Dining Car Co. of New Jersey, with a 20-year lease of the land in order to give a new proprietor incentive to invest in the business and make improvements. But no one wanted to take it on. So the town restructured the deal. Finally, last week, three bidders put in offers.

The highest bid, from Linda Robinson and Tina Zannino, who both work at a Shrewsbury restaurant, will probably be disqualified because the bidders did not follow instructions, according to Town Manager Dan Morgado. They provided an unsigned personal check as their bid bond, he said, but personal checks are not allowed.

That leaves David Kupstas as the highest bidder. He is offering $5,000 for the diner and just over $1,500 for the monthly lease of the land, said Morgado, who was planning to meet with him this week to talk about his financial backing and business plan. "He indicated he had experience in the food service area," said Morgado. Kupstas could not be reached for comment.

If talks go well with Kupstas, he could be awarded the bid this week, said Morgado.

"We're pleased that we're about to get that property back into productive use," said Morgado.

The other bid came from Richard Bolt, a Marlborough resident who works in telecommunications. Bolt said he didn't want to say much about his plans until he sees whether he wins the bid. Still, why bid on such a risky venture?

"Because I've always wanted a little place like that to open up," Bolt said. "I've been inside it. It's kind of a homey atmosphere. It needs some tender loving care, because it hasn't been kept up." He is offering $5,900 for the diner car and $1,100 for the land lease, said Morgado. Kupstas is considered the high bidder because the monthly lease will be paid for years, whereas the diner car purchase is one time only, said Morgado. The real work, of course, comes after a bid is awarded.