I ate at Maine's oldest diner, located inside a 1920s railcar. It was worth the hourlong wait for a seat.
14.08.2024 - 18:33
/ insider.com
On a road trip from Connecticut to Portland, Maine, I stopped off at Palace Diner.
The almost 100-year-old restaurant is famous for two things: its classic 1920s railcar interior and a chicken sandwich people travel for miles to try.
One of only two Pollard-style dining cars remaining in the country, Palace Diner was named one of Eater's essential restaurants in 2018 and the diner's chefs were nominated for a James Beard Award in 2020. It even appeared in a 2022 episode of the hit Netflix series "Somebody Feed Phil," starring Phil Rosenthal, who praised the diner's "idealized versions of omelets, French toast, pancakes, burgers, [and] sandwiches."
The diner, which is believed to be the oldest in the state, has changed hands multiple times since it first opened as a popular eatery for local mill workers, the Portland Press Herald reported. It's now owned by Greg Mitchell and Chad Conley, business partners who met while working at a farm in Harborside, Maine.
"We came to Biddeford on a whim and within two hours we had met all the right people," Conley told Maine Magazine in 2015, a year after the pair purchased the diner.
As for creating the menu, Conley said they "ate a lot of cheeseburgers" in the early days.
"Even now, the editing and creating process never stops," he added. "We use customer feedback, take suggestions from our servers. We're not afraid to take things off or add to the menu."
Here's a look inside the historic Palace Diner, and what you should order when you visit.