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.

At Smokejacks (658-1119) on Church Street, refurbishing and rebuilding after a fire in the basement kitchen of the restaurant also took longer than expected. In addition to rebuilding the 22-year-old kitchen, owner Leslie Myers said, "The whole building had to be rewired."

Myers took advantage of the closure to clean, repaint, and generally freshen the interior of the restaurant that celebrated its decade anniversary this summer and was on the forefront of building strong connections between local farmers and chefs.

The team, which includes executive chef Josh Robinette and sous-chef Erik Donaldson, reopened the restaurant quietly on Sunday night with a limited menu of favorites including the sweet potato soup, Caesar salad, seared yellow fin tuna with cucumber-noodle salad, their nationally acclaimed burgers and macaroni and cheese, as well as signature coconut-chocolate creme brulee and cheese plate.

Myers said they expect to have the full dinner menu back by the end of the week and will restart brunch on Saturday. Smokejacks serves dinner from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, until 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and offers a brunch menu Friday through Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Originally published online here: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071011/ENT06/710110334/1048/ENT