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.

“This place was a shell, nothing was done,” said head chef Jason Seavey. “It’s not like she came in and took the keys from the old owner. She changed the whole ambiance.”

The revamped diner features a retro 1950s style with authentic souvenirs and food will be home-style cooking using only fresh and local ingredients, promises Flerra.

The bar has a European flare with black and white décor, and visitors who took a sneak peak at the bar told Flerra it seems like a spot in Manhattan or Boston.

The Riversedge — until recently called the Stonecutters’ Tavern, after the town’s history of granite quarrying — will feature live bands playing jazz and blues. Selectmen this week gave Maynard approval to offer live music and outdoor seating for up to six people.

The diner and the bar are creating about 40 new jobs, said Flerra, who said none of this would be possible without the help of investors and her three adult children, who have been working on the project along with her. She also thanked former chef Stephen Fournier for coming back to the Milford Fish Market so she could concentrate on opening the diner.

“I’m so grateful to the people that believed in me,” she said.

The diner is located next to the Souhegan River and the Stone Bridge, built with local granite. Milford’s town history, “The Granite Town,” says the town’s first diner was a streetcar owned by Sidney Baker, who bought it in 1900 and would park it on Middle Street during the day. Then in the late afternoon, he’d bring it to the north end of the Oval and open for business, but only at night.

The current building was brought here in 1931, still only a night business until 1946.

After the diner closed in 2005, Toro opened at the site but in the summer of 2006 the town closed the restaurant down for health reasons after water and electricity were shut off for non-payment and the two owners apparently fled the area.

Originally published online here: