Classic Diners of Maine by Caron Sarah Walker;

Author:Caron, Sarah Walker;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The interior of the Miss Portland Diner’s lunch car is well maintained and draws a crowd.

Manning worked with city officials to come to an agreement in 2006. “I ended up basically buying it from the city,” Manning said. The decision ultimately saved the Miss Portland Diner. “They were like one step away from dumping this thing. I like a challenge, so I said let’s do it.”

The diner was moved to 140 Marginal Way, and a structure was built to attach it to. Manning reopened the Miss Portland Diner on October 31, 2008.

The life-changing decision, which Manning made with his wife, uprooted him from a longtime career at Newsweek. The risk—trading a corporate job in Manhattan for the difficult restaurant business—paid off. “It turned out. We’re a pretty thriving business both for the tourists that come through [and the locals],” Manning said. “We have a huge local following. Our business doesn’t dip down.”

This blue diner with yellow lettering has seen the city grow and develop around it. Across the street, a pharmacy sits near a Trader Joe’s and other stores. Next door, apartments were built. Manning said that the development of the area helped a little but not as much as it would have if the so-called Midtown Project was completed.

“It’s been on the drawing board for seven years now,” Manning said. A developer from Miami had four sixteen-story buildings planned to be built on Somerset. The project was approved by the city. “It basically would run from Whole Foods all the way to the back of Trader Joe’s.” However, a lawsuit derailed the project. The developer considered changes to the proposal, but the project lost momentum.

Nonetheless, Manning said that the Miss Portland gets steady business. “Our business goes up every year.…We’re in a very competitive market for restaurants, but our sales have gone up every year that we’ve been open,” Manning said. He credits the cleanliness of the diner as part of its appeal. “We do a lot of the small things that I think restaurant owners don’t want to spend the funds on.”

The Miss Portland Diner also has a strong commitment to from-scratch cooking, something that was true of previous owners too. “I guess it was probably living and working in Manhattan, where there are really nice restaurants. I figured if it was worth doing, it was worth doing well.…I take a lot of pride in the things that I do,” Manning said. “I wanted to make it special. But in doing so, I also wanted to make it reasonably priced.…We buy good product, and we make a lot of food from scratch. We buy most of our food from local vendors.…We roast our own turkeys every day,” Manning continued. “Our signature dish down there is the corned beef hash.”

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