History First
There is nothin’ finer than a Worcester Diner” was the slogan of the Worcester Lunch Car Company (WLCC), which specialized in small, handcrafted diners with porcelain exteriors and hardwood interiors.
Worcester diners were often adorned with marble countertops, hardwood booths, and stainless steel panels shaped into starburst patterns and were well-known for their level of craftsmanship. Today you would be hard-pressed to find a finer example than the 1949 Miss Portland Diner – WLCC No. 818.
Miss Portland was originally located on Forest Avenue and was moved from there in 1964 – to make room for the new Federal Building – to 49 Marginal Way where she served breakfast and lunch to a mostly local crowd.
Known for her special ambiance, Miss Portland made a cameo appearance in Mel Gibson’s movie Man without a Face in August 1993. In 2004 the City of Portland accepted the diner car as a donation to ensure her proper restoration.
Miss Portland was purchased in 2007 by Tom Manning, a Portland native who left Maine over 35 years ago for a career in publishing in New York City and who came back to his hometown to preserve this piece of local history. Tom worked with the City’s historic preservation department to ensure that his vision of a revived Miss Portland met with their approval and her doors opened to welcome the residents and visitors of Bayside in October 2008.
Our Experience
Unfortunately Jill had to switch plans and come later in the day but Jackie, Maureen and I enjoyed our trip to Miss Portland. We had planned a mid morning breakfast and had a small snack before we left Grafton so by the time we got there we were all pretty hungry.
Similar to most Worcester Diner Cars, additional cooking and seating is added to supplement the limited space in the actual diner car. Miss Portland was no different but fortunately they kept diner car appearance pretty much the same. No cooking in the car but otherwise it looked pretty much like most Worcester Diner Cars.
Yes another Worcester Car clock - like to see those.
They had quite a menu and specials to offer the day we were there.
Maureen had the breakfast sandwich special with apple sausage, jalapeno, eggs and cheese. She also had a side of hash which was very good. Wow a couple in row with good hash. Jackie had the hash and eggs benedict combo. And I had the biscuits, sausage and gravy with two over easy eggs. All our meals were excellent and even though we arrived very hungry we all left stuffed and ready for a nap.
On the recommended list and would go again.
And yes as always the diner queens:
Footnote
All three of us left so full that we thought we would be done for awhile. Unfortunately our next stop was only a half hour away and we all had a miracle recovery - breakfast to beer.
