Red Arrow Diner, Milford, NH
photo copyright October 25, 2009 by Larry Cultrera
Well, I’ve been wanting to get back to Milford, NH to see the newest outlet of the Red Arrow Diner. I reported a while back (Sept. 25, 2008 to be exact) that Carol Sheehan of the wildly successful (and popular) Red Arrow Diner of Manchester, NH was going to reopen the former Milford Diner as a second outlet for the Red Arrow. See this post….. https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/new-hampshires-milford-diner-to-become-2nd-red-arrow-diner/
In fact, I was thinking of trying to get to Milford for their annual Pumpkin Festival two weeks ago but the stars were not aligned or something and it did not happen. Then last week Randy Garbin (of RoadsideOnline) and his family made a visit to Milford and as anticipated left there with glowing reviews of the diner. This spurred me to finally get back to one of my favorite New Hampshire towns for breakfast. Saturday was out of the question as it was rainy and gloomy pretty much all day, but Sunday was promising to be a perfect autumnal weekend and probably the last one with any significant folliage to view.
Red Arrow Diner, Milford, NH
photo copyright October 25, 2009 by Larry Cultrera
Kuppy’s Diner of Middletown, PA from my collection.
The Red Arrow Diner in Milford, NH should look more like this.
Denise and I got up to Milford around 7:30 am and the diner was not too busy which was alright with me. Probably a lull as we overheard the day before the diner was jammed a good portion of the day. Denise got a freshly baked coffee cake muffin and I had the eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and toast. We were both very happy with our food and the service was quick and the waitress attentive.
This diner has been a favorite of mine for at least 15 years. I love the setting and always have loved eating here, but now more so as it is a Red Arrow Diner now! I recall driving by it in the 1980’s and wondering if it was a real diner. You see, the place is covered with a regular peaked roof with a gable on the left side and the other end is married into the attached building.
This was done long before I had ever seen it. I was not sure if it was a factory-built diner, so I never logged it or photographed it until the 1990’s. But I actually did go in it one day back in the early to mid 1980’s to have a cup of coffee and more importantly to check it out! I noticed it had what appeared to be a monitor roof with a very narrow clerestory. Being a novice back then I was not as familiar with some of the diner manufacturers as I would later become.
Red Arrow Diner, Milford, NH
photo copyright October 25, 2009 by Larry Cultrera
By the time the 1990’s rolled around, my expertise in these matters was fairly rounded out and I realized that this was possibly a rare (for these parts) Ward & Dickinson diner out of Silver Creek, NY. I have since learned from New York diner maven Mike Engle (co-author with Mario Monti of Diners of New York, Stackpole Books) that this may actually be an even more rare Liberty Diner (which has direct lineage to the Ward & Dickinson Co.).
New red standing seam roof at the Red Arrow Diner, Milford, NH
(by the way, I got to sit at my favorite stool, the last one on the left),
the last couple of feet of the diner actually hang over the river as the diner was longer than the piece of land.
photo copyright October 25, 2009 by Larry Cultrera
One thing that is different since the last time I was there, the roof over the diner has been redone with a red standing seam covering. It also has a new sign next to the right hand addition. Most of the other changes they made were just tweaks to what former owner Debbie Flerra had already done to bring the diner back to life after it had been stripped by the last owner (before Debbie and her late partner Gordon Maynard bought it).
new sign at the Red Arrow Diner, Milford, NH
photo copyright October 25, 2009 by Larry Cultrera
It looks like as Randy said Carol Sheehan has struck gold again with this 2nd Red Arrow Diner and is now actively seeking people to buy franchises. She hopes to have many more Red Arrows located throughout New England (and probably beyond) before too long! Check out their website at…
http://redarrowdiner.com/home for more info on the diners and their plans for franchising!
new sign at the Red Arrow Diner, Milford, NH
photo copyright October 25, 2009 by Larry Cultrera
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