S-T: Iconic New Bedford diner for sale.

Here is an article that I would have posted on Thursday, when it was published, had I not been busy with final exams and papers: my hometown newspaper reports that a New Bedford landmark, the Shawmut Diner, is being put up for sale. Retiring from the restaurant business after thirty-two years running the Shawmut Diner, owners Phil and Celeste Paleologos are hoping for buyers who will keep the diner open - even if that means moving the 1954 structure to a new location. Here is more on the transition, from Thursday's article in the New Bedford Standard-Times:

"I love (the diner), and I love these two people right here, I'll tell you that," said Cindy Lopes, a two-year employee at the diner. With tears in her eyes, Lopes said she would stay if the business changes hands.

"It's life," she said, adding that working at the diner is allowing her to put her 20-year old daughter through college. "If the diner moves that would be my best thing — I will be helping it move."

. . .

For their customers, the Shawmut Diner without Phil and Celeste is hard to imagine.

The owners are as much of a fixture as the iconic railcar-style diner featured in a striking nighttime shot in the 2003 movie "Passionada" which was filmed on SouthCoast.

Sipping frappes Wednesday morning were John and Lynne Reale, who ate at the diner the morning after their prom in 1956. Almost six decades later, they're as loyal to the establishment as ever.

"It was just the place to hang out because there weren't any fast food places," said Mrs. Reale, maiden name Green, who was Miss New Bedford in 1959.

"They'll be missed," she added. "Hopefully somebody good will take over and continue the tradition."

That's what Paleologos is hoping for and he said he'll do what he can to make it happen.

"If those stools could talk," Paleologos said, "the stories they would tell ... would constitute a best seller — all the different conversations that went on, all the relationships that took place here, all the different events."

"This is what America is all about," he said. "This is a microcosm of what life is all about — a little neighborhood diner."

To read more, click here. Here's hoping that the Shawmut Diner falls ino good hands, and remains a SouthCoast fixture for very many years to come. AMDG.

The photo that illustrates this post was found here.