The Maine Diner is a

diner A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...

Wells, Maine Wells is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. Founded in 1643, it is the third-oldest town in Maine. The population was 11,314 at the 2020 census. Wells Beach is a popular summer destination. History The Abenaki Indians calle ...

. It serves

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

lunch Lunch is a meal eaten around the middle of the day. It is commonly the second meal of the day, after breakfast, and varies in size by culture and region. Etymology According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the etymology ...

, and

dinner Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the largest and most formal meal of the day, which is eaten in the evening. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite, ...

. The diner, which has a seating capacity of 90 and a year-round staff of about 60, serves an average of 1,200 to 1,500 patrons on a peak summer day. The restaurant is known for its seafood chowder and

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

pie and other

Down East "Down East", also "Downeast", is a term for parts of eastern coastal New England and Canada, particularly the U.S. state of Maine and Canada's Maritime Provinces, an area that closely corresponds to the historical French territory of Acadia. Th ...

fare.CityGuide.aol.com
/ref> It serves breakfast all day. Many of its vegetables and herbs come from a garden behind the building. Lobster pie at the Maine Diner

"Oft-hyped and popular with tourists",MaineToday.com
/ref> the diner served its 2-millionth guest in 1999 and its 5-millionth on December 17, 2008.

History

Socrates "Soky" Toton, an Albanian immigrant, purchased the original Maine Diner in the early 1950s. Toton did the cooking and his wife Margaret waited on tables along with another full-time waitress, Millie, and two part-time waitresses. The Maine Diner became well known for their made-from-scratch food; they grew much of their own produce behind the diner. During the mid-1950s, the old building was moved and a new building was built. The Totons lived next to the Diner, in the house that is now the diner's gift shop. The diner was open year-round until Margaret died in 1966. After she died, Toton closed the restaurant for a year. After that, Toton opened the diner from

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

and closed it for the summer. Toton ran the diner until he had a heart attack in January 1980; he died the following month. Brothers Myles and Dick Henry purchased the Diner in 1983.SeacoastOnline.com
/ref> Their first customer was a man who crashed into a pole near the parking lot. He had mistaken the diner for a bar he was looking for.Official Website of the Maine Diner
Myles died in 2010. The diner is managed by Jim MacNeill.
/ref>

Reception

The Maine Diner was featured on NBC's ''The Today Show'' (invited to the show by

Jane and Michael Stern Jane Grossman Stern and Michael Stern (both born 1946) are American writers who specialize in books about travel, food, and popular culture. They are best known for their '' Roadfood'' books, website, and magazine columns, in which they find roa ...

), as a banner on the restaurant states. Also, it was mentioned in the magazine ''

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownershi ...

'' and in the

Book ''Eat Your Way Across The USA''.

Cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Wiley Miller David Wiley Miller (born April 15, 1951, Burbank, California) is an American cartoonist whose work is characterized by wry wit and trenchant social satire, is best known for his comic strip '' Non Sequitur'', which he signs Wiley. ''Non Sequitur' ...

said called the diner the model for Flo's Offshore Diner in his cartoon strip ''Non Sequitur''. On August 9, 2010, the diner was featured on

Guy Fieri Guy Ramsay Fieri (, ; ''né'' Ferry; born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author, and an Emmy Award winning television presenter. He co-owns three restaurants in California, licenses his name to restaurants in New York City, Las ...

's ''

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'' (often nicknamed ''Triple D'' and stylized as ''Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives'') is an American food reality television series that premiered on April 23, 2007, on the Food Network. It is hosted by Guy Fieri. The show o ...

''.The Maine Diner Featured on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives Show
The Maine Diner has served some famous guests, including boxing announcer

Bob Sheridan Bob Sheridan (born 1944 in Boston) is an American boxing and MMA commentator. He has broadcast over 10,000 fights on radio and television. Sheridan attended the University of Miami on a baseball scholarship and briefly played for the Class-A M ...

, a Boxing Hall of Fame member; and

Eddie Andelman Eddie Andelman (born 1937 Stoda, Greg"Boston’s Eddie Andelman, godfather of sports talk, still feisty at 77" ''The Palm Beach Post'', July 7, 2014) is an American sports radio talk show host. He has worked over 40 years in sports talk radio in Bo ...

, a sports radio talk host. It has a platter named after the

Phantom Gourmet The ''Phantom Gourmet'' is a food-related television program featuring profiles of New England area restaurants. The show airs on WSBK-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, WNAC-DT2 in Providence, Rhode Island, and WPXT in Portland, Maine each Saturda ...

. Next door to the Maine Diner is a gift shop called "Remember the Maine", the famous battle cry of the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

. It sells

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and Maine Diner souvenirs.

References

External links

Official website

Video of the Maine Diner
{{coord, 43.34195, -70.56310 , format=dms , region:US-ME_type:landmark , display=title Wells, Maine Buildings and structures in York County, Maine Diners in Maine Tourist attractions in York County, Maine 1950s establishments in Maine