It’s not Christie’s Country Store.
But the Athena Diner — closed since June — will soon live again.
New owners are doing site work and renovations.
That’s good news for Westporters. Southporters. And drivers everywhere, looking for a quick stop off I-95 Exit 19.
Athena Diner (Photo/Andy Bangser)
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Great news. Sherwood is too far and too crowded firmy family. Hope to see some familiar faces when Athena rises.
That’s my FAMILY
Wonderful news!
Hopefully the new owners will rehire the original staff. They are wonderful!
Does anyone know why they closed so suddenly?
It has been discussed previously. All sorts of issues including owing back taxes to the IRS, town, etc. Hopefully the food is better under the new ownership!
That place meant a lot to me. It was my father’s favorite hangout in his later years. The waitresses loved him. And when I was a very young reporter covering Fairfield, local politicians three times my age would invite me there about Board of Whatever meetings.
Any details on who the new owners are and when it’s scheduled to open?
Hopefully a facelift means total and inspired –including a great menu and new wait staff because the old just shuffled along. It was dreadful.
You felt like you were in a morgue.
If the new Athena is anywhere as good as the old version this is good news indeed. I loved the place.
It was just renovated a year or so ago. But I’m really glad — I preferred Athena to Sherwood.
Ditto..where else could you get a lamb sandwich?
Happy to hear this. Good place to go while you wait to have your tires put on next door at Town Fair.
So it looks like the property did not change hands after all despite a “Diner Sold” sign that was originally posted? Did they pay off all their tax liens and debt? The sign says the new “Southport Diner” is coming from the owners of the Athena Diner. Interesting on the re-branding… There has to be more to the story!
The problem with nostalgia and wishing for the old Athena diner to be reborn as it was is it went out of business because business was lousy. The food was mediocre — (how many people eat lamb sandwiches), the wait staff could have been working in a morgue, the atmosphere was deadly.
Rarely was there anyone there younger than 60.
Any new incarnation needs to compete with Sherwood — and not that the food is great there but it’s a helluva lot better than what was served at Athena.
And talk about a depressing exterior in a tony town. What a concept that was!
Hard to believe that the mountain of debt owed was paid off.