A Newcastle couple, veterans of the local restaurant community, says they’re proud to carry on a tradition at the Bristol Diner.
Dale and Easter Swartzentruber recently bought the business and, after a weekend-long closure and a flurry of painting and redecorating, re-opened the eatery Sept. 20.
The history of the Diner and its role in the community is important to its new owners. Easter Swartzentruber calls the Diner “the cornerstone of a historical community.”
“We want to carry on the name of the Bristol Diner,” Dale Swartzentruber said.
The Swartzentrubers have had their eye on the Diner “for a couple years,” Dale Swartzentruber said. They’d almost “stopped looking at it” when, suddenly, they heard about a businessman “who wants to buy the building but needs to find someone to run the diner.”
“A month and a half later, here we are,” Dale Swartzentruber said. The couple plans to purchase the building, too, in the future.
Dale, originally of Atlanta, Ga., and Easter, a Connecticut native, met while working at The Blue Moon, a restaurant on St. Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
For the next several years, the couple came to Round Pond in the summer to work at the Anchor Inn, migrating south, like many in the restaurant business, to work winters in the Caribbean.
Finally, Dale and Easter moved to Maine full-time, buying a home in downtown Newcastle and, as chef and hostess/manager, respectively, running the Damariscotta River Grill in the first years of its existence.
More recently, Dale was the chef, Easter a bartender at the Newcastle Publick House.
The arrangement – Dale in the kitchen, Easter in the dining room – works.
“I love it,” Easter Swartzentruber said.
“We complement each other really well,” Dale Swartzentruber said.
After nearly 20 years in the hectic restaurant industry, with its unusual hours, “We just wanted to get out of the nighttime business and get home with our kids – do what we love but do it during the day,” Easter Swartzentruber said.
The kids – Cooper, six, and Olivia, four – enjoy the diner and their parents like the flexibility the 2 p.m. closing time affords.
The couple describes the Diner’s brand-new menu as “classic diner” or “comfort” food.
The classic diner menu includes staples like eggs any style, home fries, omelets and pancakes for breakfast, cheeseburgers and a fried haddock sandwich for lunch.
Dale Swartzentruber’s experience and travels have resulted in distinctive offerings, too. A friend in the islands taught him how to make a Cuban sandwich, while he learned how to cook homemade biscuits and sausage gravy from a friend’s grandmother at home in Georgia.
He makes corned beef hash to order and “everything’s homemade,” Easter said.
The Diner also offers an expanded selection of fresh baked goods, made by Easter and including fresh apple cake (while in season) as well as donuts, muffins, cookies and brownies.
The Diner’s staff – Dale, Easter and one employee – welcomes to-go orders for breakfast and lunch and plans to offer once-daily delivery to Damariscotta starting next month.
The Bristol Diner, at 1267 Bristol Rd. in the heart of Bristol Mills, is open Tuesdays-Fridays, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For more information, call 563-8000 or like The Bristol Diner on Facebook.
