Diner relic destined for new life
Blanchard cousins plan to open eatery on Cambridge Street
A local entrepreneurial family plans to give new life to the last diner ever made in Worcester.
The Blanchard family has been in the food business for decades, but what started as Blanchard Milk on Cambridge Street in the 1940s and eventually became the Blanchard Foods Corp. catering and vending business is now bringing a diner to the Worcester neighborhood.
Cousins Chris and Matt Blanchard bought the "101 Deluxe" diner from the American Diner Museum of Providence, R.I., for $10,000.
They spent another $10,000 moving the diner to Cambridge Street, and so far, they've spent $350,000 renovating and rebuilding the diner, which is attached to the front of Blanchard's 322 Cambridge St. catering and vending business.
Unfinished business
But once complete, the diner won't be reopening. The 101 Deluxe was never finished.
According to the diner museum, the Blanchard's latest investment is the last diner ever produced in Worcester, even though it has never been a working diner.
The VanSlett Sign Co. from Park Avenue in Worcester started building the diner shortly after buying a diner manufacturing company based on Southbridge Street.
But as far as anyone can tell, VanSlett simply lost interest in building diners, and put the unfinished 101 Deluxe in the back of its building.
That's where it was found, barely a shell, and sold to the diner museum.
So the Blanchards don't have much to go on.
"We're not sure what it's supposed to look like," Chris Blanchard said, "and you don't know what VanSlett's vision was."
But the Blanchards do have some blueprints, and intend to give the new diner "the feel of an old-time diner," Matt Blanchard said.
Besides, "it's kind of hard to be historically accurate because of regulations," Chris Blanchard said. Unlike a diner built in the heyday of the dining car, all of today's restaurants have to comply with handicapped accessibility, fire safety, zoning and various other laws.
If the Blanchards were trying to accurately reproduce an old-time diner, "you'll never get it going, or it'll be a long time," Chris Blanchard said.
But because "we're bringing clean industry into the area, everyone works with you," Matt Blanchard added.
The prospect of homemade comfort food on Cambridge Street helps, too.
"It's going to be stuff when you walk in, you like. It's all going to be homemade," Matt Blanchard said.
Despite what has already been a hefty investment, Matt Blanchard said the money is well spent. He expects the diner to be a draw for people in the neighborhood, where a new housing development is underway. And he expects students and others from the nearby College of the Holy Cross to patronize the refurbished relic as well.
"We feel the neighborhood could use it down here," Matt Blanchard said. "It's going to add something to the neighborhood. There's nothing down this end, but now the redevelopment authority is working on some projects, and we think it would be really nice to have some food in here."
He said the diner could be open in July.
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