EASTPORT, Maine — On a street of old, three-story brick buildings, the small, one-story, wooden Waco Diner grabs your eye.
But "out of place" is not a term anyone would use for the Waco. The small diner has been in business in the same spot for a century. It has become part of the landscape, and the life, of the coastal town.
"Think about a restaurant in a tiny town, in Down East Maine, for 100 years same location," Matt Boyle, who owns and operates the diner with his partner Mike Del Papa, said.
"We are the oldest diner in the state of Maine."
That 100th birthday was celebrated on May 4, as 50 invited guests packed into the dining room to mark the occasion. The audience included both Maine U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, together with Congressman Jared Golden—an indication of the important the state's elected leaders place on Eastport and on Washington County.
But it was the locals in the crowd that may have really showed how much the Waco, and its history, have come to mean to people who live here.
"History is really important," Tessa Chaffee Ftorek, who grew up in the town and now helps keep watch on local history, said.
"The fact this has sustained through [Eastport's] crazy economy, ups and downs of our shipping industry and our fishing industry. The Waco has remained a constant. And that’s how I think of it. You always knew the Waco would be here."
The Waco was started as a lunch wagon in 1924 by two local men, Nathan Watts and Ralph Colwell, who placed it on this same spot, beside Mitchell’s garage, according to family members. They soon added two walls and a roof and then chose the name.
"The first two letters of Watts, WA and the first of Colwell, CO, so Waco," Frances Colwell Mitchell, the daughter and granddaughter of the two founders, said.
She laughed about how the name has been mispronounced over the years and still is by many.
"So for family, it's always been the Waco," said Dana Mitchell, Frances’ son, pronouncing the name with an "ah" sound. “It's not 'Way-co,' and not Washington County," he added, because that, too, is a common misperception.
Beyond the varied pronunciations of the name, there is also the history of the Waco, for years, that did not include children or even many women customers, because it was primarily a bar.
"Children weren’t allowed to come here because they served beer," Frances Mitchell explained, "so I didn’t spend many hours here. But I did occasionally sneak down."
Her son Dana, who is in his mid-50s, said it was still that way when he was young.
"But when we were growing up, downtown was not a place where young people could hang out... they served beer there. And right at the front was a cigarette machine!"
The Waco has changed over those years, added Tessa Ftorek, who graduated from Shead High School in 1969. The Waco then, she said, wasn’t a place where women often went.
"Back then, this was a bar that served a little food, now it’s a restaurant that has a bar in it."
The change, she said, has mirrored the gradual changes in Eastport itself, which has evolved from being a city that made its living from fishing and sardine factories to one that has become something of a tourist community that also has a small, deep water cargo port.
Mike Del Papa’s father bought the Waco in 2010 and ran it for 12 years, then sold it to his son Mike and Matt Boyle. The men were both living and working in Miami but decided to pack up and move to Eastport to take on the restaurant.
Both still work other jobs—Mike designs high-end homes in Florida while Matt has a carpentry and renovation business. But both say their passion is for the Waco, and the community around it, which included keeping the restaurant going through the slow winter months and staying open seven days a week.
"We call it a community service in the winter, kind of a joke, but it is a community service," Matt said. "We want someplace for people to go. It can be the worst storm but people will be here to get coffee and see what’s going on."
"For us, it’s the community," added Mike. "It would be easy to close down for a couple months in winter if we chose to, but it's more about Eastport and the community than anything."
The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch seven days a week, but the men say that they started serving dinner on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights—because local inns and a hotel asked them to help when no other restaurants were open those days.
Speaking to the crowd at the May 4 celebration, the two owners thanked people for supporting the business and told them again that the ability for the Waco to endure for 100 years is about more than just the restaurant. Its also, they and others said, symbolic of the endurance of Eastport and the people who call it home.