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Carol Sheehan in her own words

Category: Eat in Diners

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Written by Randy Garbin

Red Arrow owner Carol Sheehan tells her story to the New Hampshire Business Journal (and tosses some props our way).

Q&A with: Red Arrow Diner owner Carol Sheehan

If you said Carol Sheehan, owner of Manchester's Red Arrow Diner, was a "daddy's girl," you'd be right -- and also very wrong.

In 1987, when she was in her early 20s, Sheehan embarked on a journey with her father George Lawrence and another business partner to buy the Red Arrow Diner, which had sat vacant for two years.

Running a restaurant, after all, was in her blood. Her family runs the Belmont Hall & Restaurant on Grove Street.

But it was her very own common sense, energetic spirit and careful attention that brought the Queen City landmark back to life.

Fast-forward to 2010, and you are just as likely to hear the Bedford resident on the radio with her talk show, "Food for Thought with the Taste Buds," with co-host Michelle Trumble, as you will see her in the Red Arrow corporate offices planning the business's expansion -- or slinging hash while meeting presidential candidates at the diner.

Yes, Sheehan still serves blue-plate specials (on blue plates) at the Red Arrow on occasion, calling it "a great way to get customer feedback."

And while Sheehan, 46, still asks her dad for his advice, she is definitely not afraid to blaze her own trail.

Q. You bought the diner in 1987. What prompted you to take on that project?

Read her answers here.