Chelmsford Diner Hoping to Open Next Week

The rebirth of the former Stop and Shop Plaza at the corner of Boston Road and Summer Street has gotten a lot of attention over the past few months, but one incoming business just a few hundred feet away has also been getting a lot of buzz from folks driving by.

Scheduled for an opening during the week of July 22, the Shoppes on Summer Street will become home to the Chelmsford Diner, a new breakfast-focused family restaurant operated by Terry Langone, a veteran of several other diners in Billerica such as Garrison’s and Antonio’s.

For Langone, the lack of Chelmsford’s greasy spoons in comparison to Billerica seemed to be an opportunity for an underserved market: folks looking for a friendly place to get some breakfast food.

That and the vacancy of the Aubuchon location when she started looking a few months ago proved fateful in her decision.

“I’ve spent my life in this business, and I think the area is underserved. I didn’t consider Billerica, it’s saturated with breakfast places.” said Langone. “I just thought ‘if I’m never going to do it now, I never would.’ Now just seemed like the time to do it.”

Although the plaza currently has a variety of other restaurants, they all serve other styles of cuisine ranging from Sushi and Chinese to Pizza and Italian. Langone sees these other restaurants not as competitors, but as boons to her business, creating a “dining destination” in the plaza much like the one that drew Five Guys to Drum Hill.

“I see us helping each other, and we’ll be open during different hours, so I doubt we’ll overlap much in terms of customers,” she said. “And when people come here in the morning, they’ll see the other businesses and come back and then when people come to them at night, they’ll see my business, so that will help too.”

And while there are other nearby restaurants that come close to the model Langone sees for her restaurant, such as Jessie’s, Langone believes her establishment will be unique, ranging from not frying any food to potential service of smoothies down the line in addition to traditional breakfast comfort food.

The tentative schedule for the diner is Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. with 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. hours on Sunday.