Becky’s Diner casts its home-cooked aroma across the waterfront of Portland, Maine, inviting locals and tourists to come in from the snow, the rain, and even the heat of a summer day and take a seat and be at home. Many of the thousands of Becky Rand’s customers have been accepting that invitation for 30 years.
As Becky and I wound our way through the packed first floor of diners, she looked back at me and said, “I like to think it’s because of the food.” She was correct, of course. But it wasn’t only the excellent menu that included my all-time favorite breakfast of chocolate-chip pancakes with real maple syrup. Note to visitors “from away”: When you come to Maine, real maple syrup will wean you forever from the travesty of whatever is in the Not Real syrup.
No, it was more than the food at the large, two-story diner that sits at the west end of Commercial Street. It was Becky that brought her customers back, year after year. Becky and her six children, her family and relatives, and her friends, who had worked together to create a genuine atmosphere of home. 50 percent of her customers are repeats: loyal patrons that have become friends. She knows many of their names, and they say that Becky’s Diner has “the feel of Maine” and is “the soul of Portland.” Her success wasn’t based on a clever marketing plan run by bean-counters. She turned down offers from people like that, who wanted to buy her out, precisely because they would not have been able to replicate what makes Becky’s special. Her “secret sauce” was and still is devotion.
