By Colleen Gundlach

Tucked sideways next to the Odd Fellows Building, two doors up from the YMCA in Winsted, is a piece of local history that is often overlooked. The hand-carved wooden hot dog man in front is the only reason that a driver traveling through town would have reason to give it a second look. However, to the locals, this is a secret treasure and source of pride.

The Winsted Diner has been through some difficult years, but bounces back each time with the help of townspeople who just won’t give up on it. Despite being almost destroyed by the flood of 1955 and later by a fire in 2005, the little diner car that could still chugs along. In fact, it is one of the longest continuously-operating diners in the country.

The wooden hot dog out front lures diners inside.

The diner itself comes from PJ “Pap” Tierney’s diner factory in New Rochelle, New York. He had a fleet of 38, some of which were the older wagon style, but most of them looked more like railroad cars. According to diner historian Wesli Dymoke, these cars were 30-feet long by 10.5 feet wide, with 15 stools in front a counter that ran the building’s length. Each diner took two weeks to build, but they were not shipped to a new location until the new owners were trained in their care.

Winsted Diner was manufactured in 1931, and purchased by Louis and Edward Venezia, who had it shipped to its present location on a flatbed rail car from New Rochelle. In spite of the disasters it has endured over the years, the diner still retains the original marble tiles, fixtures and floor.

There are very few Tierney diners remaining today—just two others in Connecticut, Grandma Rosie’s in Waterbury and the Quaker Diner in West Hartford. Winsted’s is a fraction of the size of the Quaker Diner and in considerably better condition, according to Dymoke. “Winsted Diner is unusually well-preserved,” he says.

Besides the Venezia brothers, other Winstedites have owned the diner over the years, including Hoppy DeGuzman, Art Peck and Andy Tabak, but no one made a stronger mark on the diner than the Radocchio family. In 1973, Carol and Robert (Bob) Radocchio bought the diner and ran it 24-hours a day, seven days a week for the next 32 years.

The Radocchios and their five children ran the business together. Their only daughter, Trudy Gillette, recalls that from the age of 13 she and her brothers would go to the diner before and after school to help out. “We peeled 300 pounds of potatoes in the morning and 300 after school,” she recalls. Her dad would work the night shift and her mom the days, along with three other workers who helped behind the counter. When Trudy was older, she took over the day shift from her mom, while her dad continued the 2 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. shift.

Trudy recalls that people used to line up down the street waiting to come into the tiny diner after the bars closed for the evening. “Dad had a rule,” she recalls. “Anyone who swore was thrown out. We never had any trouble. We kicked them out and they would be back the next night, looking for their coffee and companionship.”

The Winsted Diner was, and still is, famous for its Ra Doc A Doodle, a scrambled egg with sausage and cheese on an English muffin, which costs 85 cents. “Dad invented it before McDonald’s ever thought of an Egg McMuffin. I’m thinking they stole the idea from us,” Trudy says with a smile.

Locals used to call the diner the Carol & Bob Show, but Gillette says, “It was more like Carol’s Giveaway Diner. If Mom knew someone was down on their luck and needed food, she would not charge them, or would put extra food in a bag for them to take home. She had a heart of gold.”

Asa Flint, the current owner.

Trudy’s son, Matthew, began helping at the diner on weekends after Bob took a serious fall and was unable to return to work. The mother-son team kept the diner running for five more years, until an electrical fire gutted a good portion of the diner in 2005. The Radocchios then sold the diner to Jean Bauer, and the townspeople helped raise money for the necessary renovations. Bauer ran it until 2012 when she turned over the operations to Asa Flint, a chef from Salisbury who formerly operated a restaurant in Virginia Beach.

Flint added a patio, and has seen a great increase in business and variety in clientele as the result. He proudly serves what may be the very best hot dogs this side of New York City—natural casing brats, served with any number of toppings, including homemade chili, savory sauerkraut and barbecued onions. He hand cuts his own French fries and makes his own chili. “I’m about flavor and taste,” he says. “The chili has just the right combination of sweetness and kick.”

The Winsted Diner is open from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., seven days a week. On Friday and Saturday nights from 6 to 8 p.m., Flint offers barbecue and other dinner options to patrons who take advantage of the warm evenings on the covered patio. He also does catering for special events (his food will be featured at the Barkhamsted Historical Society’s pig roast on October 3). And, of course, the Ra Doc A Doodle is still a fan favorite—even with McDonald’s a mile down the road.

The Winsted Diner is located at 496 Main Street. For more information, call Asa Flint at 860-379-4429.

Photos by Bruce Frisch.