Latest News

O'Rourke's rising

Category: Latest

Published Date

You'll be happy to know that more than a year after fire gutted O'Rourke's Diner, Brian O'Rourke has started rebuilding the diner. The start of reconstruction comes after over a year of fundraising, community support, and planning by Brian and a committee of volunteers. Work has been progressing rapidly over the past month or so. Contractors have replaced the roof, installed new heating and ventilation, and attached a new modular "reefer" unit to the rear of the diner. The new refrigeration unit will allow food to be stored on the main level of the diner instead of in the cellar (which used to require employees going outside and down stairs to retrieve supplies), and it will also give the staff more room in the form of a work area that Brian plans to use for baking. This week contractors were replacing the glass block in the front corner and working on replacing the glass in the north windows. Modern fire and building codes have dictated some changes to the historic diner structure. A new larger door had to be installed, replacing the beautiful, but worn, vintage front door. The new door will be located to the right of where the old door was, so the contractors will extend the glass block from the corner to the new door. Inside there will probably be a slight change in the floor plan of the booths as a result. The rest of the interior is going to be all new, and Brian promises that it will be something special. Anyone familiar with O'Rourke's knows that the interior retained few of the original Mountain View features, so the fire didn't really destroy much interior originality (although it did destroy the wall-mounted juke boxes). Outside, plans call for restoration of the original neon sign and the neon surrounding the roof of the diner. Brian hopes that construction will be complete by early 2008, and after a three or four week setup he hopes to be ready to serve customers once again. Plans at this point include adding a dinner schedule several nights a week, so in addition to breakfast and lunch, O'Rourke's fans can look forward to eating dinner there, too. The downtown Middletown area has seen a huge resurgence in restaurant patronage over the past few years, so hopefully the diner can take advantage of that. The outpouring of support from patrons and the eageress of the city to work with Brian on getting the diner back up and running show just how important this diner has become to the city of Middletown. People love O'Rourke's for many reasons: we love the food, we appreciate the atmosphere where people from all walks of life are welcome, we like the funky atmosphere of a vintage diner, and we enjoy Brian's upbeat philosophy on life. For these reasons, O'Rourke's is rising from the ashes, and we can look forward to many years and many meals at O'Rourke's Diner.