Marcy's Diner | |
---|---|
![]() The diner in 2022 | |
![]() | |
Restaurant information | |
Established | 1941 |
Owner(s) | Mandy Lacourse (since January 2019) |
Previous owner(s) | Darla Neugebauer (2011–2019) |
Food type | Breakfast and lunch |
Dress code | Casual |
Street address | Everett Chambers 47 Oak Street |
City | Portland |
County | Cumberland County |
State | Maine |
Postal/ZIP Code | 04101 |
Coordinates | 43°39′18″N70°15′41″W / 43.6550°N 70.2613°W |
Seating capacity | 32 (ten counter stools, 22 in five booths) |
Reservations | No |
Marcy's Diner is a diner in Portland, Maine. It made international headlines in 2015 after a spat between then-cook-owner Darla Neugebauer and a patron over the latter's screaming child.
Located in the Everett Chambers building, it is open five days a week: Wednesday to Sunday, 7.00am to 1.00pm.
Known in its early days as Your Host Café, then in the 1960s as Lou’s, and later as Mike’s, it became Marcy's Diner in 1989. [1] Marcy Litman, now resident in St. Petersburg, Florida, [2] ran the business for ten years, selling it in 1999 to Kevin and Heather Smith. It was sold again two years later, to Murray and Joely Sparks. After getting to know Murray's mother, Lois, while working at the now-defunct Paul's Food Center, Darla Neugebauer — then working at Portland's Holiday Inn by the Bay — learned that the Sparkses were looking to sell the diner because the recent birth of their child meant they could no longer afford the time it needed. [3] Lois Sparks was killed in an automobile accident in 2012, a year after the Neugebauers purchased the diner. [4] [5]
Co-owner Doug Neugebauer died on March 10, 2018. [6]
In January 2019, Mandy Lacourse took the business over from Neugebauer. Lacourse was a server at the diner between 1997 and mid-2018. The diner celebrated its thirtieth anniversary under Marcy's name on March 8, 2019. [1]
The diner made international news in 2015 after then-owner Darla Neugebauer's confrontation with Tara Carson, the mother of a 21-month-old child who was screaming "for forty minutes" [7] after her pancakes were kept out of her reach by her parents during their July 18 visit. Neugebauer yelled "That needs to stop!" and pointed at the child. [8] "I think what everyone is forgetting, it’s my [diner], my rules,” Neugebauer's said shortly after the incident. This was one of the phrases that made it onto a T-shirt now sold in the diner. “If you don’t want to play by the rules, I’ll happily call Portland PD to escort your (expletive) out. If it seems like I’m getting a little pissed off, it’s because I am." [9]
“I chose to yell at the kid. It made her shut up, which made me happy, made my staff happy, made the other 75 people in the restaurant happy,” said Neugebauer, a native of Madison, Maine. “I may have used poor judgement, but I wouldn’t say I was sorry, because it stopped.” [10]
Carson's side of the story was posted on the website of the Washington Post . [11]
Since the controversy, business at the diner has increased exponentially, despite the average rating of reviews being lowered by people who side with Carson. “We’ve gone from three cases of bacon a week to eight,” said Neugebauer a month after the incident. A year later, their egg usage had increased from three cases a week to "three cases on a Sunday." [3] Neugebauer added: "Babygate was very good for Marcy's. I have a new grill with four working handles. The old one only had one!" [3]
“I’ve been here two and half years,” said Gillian Sinnott, one of the waitstaff at the time. “It feels likes it’s doubled since I’ve been here. I used to work two shifts on my own, and I can’t serve by myself any day of the week now.” They also employed a dedicated host for lunchtimes, which is something they had never previously needed. There was a two-hour wait on Saturday and Sunday mornings for a long period thereafter. [4]
Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.
Samantha Reed Smith was an American peace activist and child actress from Manchester, Maine, who became famous for her anti-war outreaches during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1982, Smith wrote a letter to the newly appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, and received a personal reply with an invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted.
The Portland Fire were a professional basketball team in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) based in Portland, Oregon that joined the league in 2000 as the counterpart to the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. They played their games at the Rose Garden. The team folded after the 2002 season, its third in the league. They were the only WNBA team that ceased operations without having made the playoffs.
My Two Dads is an American sitcom television series that was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions in association with Tri-Star Television and distributed by TeleVentures. It stars Paul Reiser, Greg Evigan, and Staci Keanan. The series premiered on NBC on September 20, 1987, airing three seasons through to April 30, 1990.
Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. is an American retired neurosurgeon, academic, author, and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 Republican primaries. Carson is one of the most prominent Black conservatives in the United States.
Juanita Broaddrick is an American former nursing home administrator. She alleged that she was raped by U.S. President Bill Clinton on April 25, 1978, when he was the Attorney General of Arkansas. Clinton declined to comment on the issue.
Gail Carson Levine is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998.
Darla is a recurring fictional character created by Joss Whedon and played by Julie Benz in the first, second, and fifth seasons of the American supernatural television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character later appeared in the Buffy spin-off series Angel, making at least one appearance in every season. She made her last television appearance in 2004, appearing as a special guest star in the fifth and final season of Angel.
Becky's Diner is a diner on Commercial Street in Portland, Maine. It is located at the head of Hobson's Wharf on Portland's waterfront.
Jeannie Carson is a British-born retired comedian, actress, singer, and dancer. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Elizabeth Strout is an American novelist and author. She is widely known for her works in literary fiction and her descriptive characterization. She was born and raised in Portland, Maine, and her experiences in her youth served as inspiration for her novels–the fictional "Shirley Falls, Maine" is the setting of four of her nine novels.
Elizabeth Diane Downs is an American woman who murdered her daughter and attempted to murder her other two children near Springfield, Oregon, on May 19, 1983. Following the crimes, she made claims to police that a man had attempted to carjack her and had shot the children. She was convicted in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. She briefly escaped in 1987, but was quickly recaptured. Downs has been repeatedly denied parole and psychiatrists have diagnosed her with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders, with one labelling her as a "deviant sociopath".
Marjorie Spock was an environmentalist, writer and poet, best known for her influence on Rachel Carson when the latter was writing Silent Spring. Spock was also a noted Waldorf teacher, eurythmist, biodynamic gardener and anthroposophist.
Ann Landers was a pen name created by Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated advice column was a regular feature in many newspapers across North America. Owing to this popularity, "Ann Landers", though fictional, became something of a national institution and cultural icon.
Ryan Michael Peters, better known by the stage name Spose, is an American rapper from Wells, Maine.
Wildwood is a 2011 children's fantasy novel by The Decemberists' Colin Meloy, illustrated by his wife Carson Ellis. The 541-page novel, inspired by classic fantasy novels and folk tales, is the story of two seventh-graders who are drawn into a hidden, magical forest, while trying to rescue a baby kidnapped by crows. They get caught up in an epic struggle, and learn of their connection to a magical parallel world while confronting adult authorities who are often cowardly or dishonest. The natural beauty and local color of Portland, Oregon, features prominently in the book.
Leelah Alcorn was an American transgender girl whose suicide attracted international attention; she had posted a suicide note to her Tumblr blog about societal standards affecting transgender people and expressing the hope that her death would create a dialogue about discrimination, abuse, and lack of support for transgender people.
My Father's Place is a restaurant and dive bar in the Buckman neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Housed in the New Logus Block, a building complex completed in 1872, included on the National Register of Historic Places, the diner has a game room and lounge and attracts a diverse clientele. The restaurant opened in 1978, and was later owned by Merrie Ann Dillon, who sold the business to her daughter Linda Moles in 2002. Remaining under the ownership of the Moles family, My Father's Place serves breakfast all day and offers happy hour options. The game room and lounge have pool tables, lottery machines, pinball, and a jukebox. Musicians Elliott Smith and Willy Vlautin frequented the bar, which hosts game nights and other events. Known as a local favorite, it operates every day including holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The reportedly haunted My Father's Place has received a generally positive reception.
Tom's Restaurant and Bar, sometimes referred to separately as Tom's Restaurant and Tom's Bar, is a restaurant and bar in Portland, Oregon, United States. Tom and Georgia Belesiu opened the diner in 1975; ownership was later transferred to their daughter Antoinette, who worked for the business as a teenager, and her husband Taki Papailiou. The menu, based on Georgia's recipes, has changed little over the years, and the greasy spoon is known for serving breakfast all day and for having an inexpensive happy hour menu.
Dockside Saloon and Restaurant, or simply Dockside, is a diner and dive bar in Portland, Oregon, United States. Established in 1986, the nautical-themed, New American restaurant is known for being where incriminating evidence against Tonya Harding related to the assault of Nancy Kerrigan was dumped in 1994.