TV Restaurants

What Happened to Uncle Andy's Diner? (South Portland, ME)

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Uncle Andy's Diner has closed — confirmed via pressherald.com, May 8, 2020.

Primary source
pressherald.com ·
Secondary source
newscentermaine.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: The Portland Press Herald reported owners Dennis and Tina Fogg closed the 66-year-old diner on May 31, 2020 after being unable to secure pandemic relief funding; News Center Maine ran a matching report the same week.

  • Season / episode Season 9, Episode 6
  • Original air date
  • Address 171 Ocean St, South Portland, ME 04106

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What happened after Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)'s "No Laughing Matter" visited Uncle Andy's Diner, a longtime family-run diner in the greater Portland, Maine area (show materials list the location as Portland; the diner's verified street address places it in neighboring South Portland). At the time of taping the diner had been operating since the 1950s, and Chef Robert Irvine found a kitchen and menu that had not been meaningfully updated in decades, along with strained family relationships among the people running the business day to day. Staff and family members described a stressful working environment, with disagreements over how the diner should be run competing with day-to-day service demands during the restaurant's busy breakfast and lunch hours. Irvine's team used the program's standard 48-hour, roughly $10,000 renovation to refresh the dining room, address kitchen equipment and workflow problems, and help the family rebuild a diner menu leaning on classic breakfast and lunch staples the kitchen could execute quickly and consistently during rush periods. On the interpersonal side, the episode's coaching focused on getting family members who worked together to communicate more directly about roles and expectations rather than letting friction spill into service. The reveal presented an updated dining room and a tightened menu meant to speed up ticket times while keeping the diner's identity as a neighborhood breakfast spot. The episode aired August 27, 2014, continuing the show's run of visits to small, longtime family businesses in New England and the mid-Atlantic that made up much of the ninth season. Later coverage of the diner, including reporting from the Portland Press Herald, continued to describe it as a multi-decade fixture of the South Portland dining scene. The diner's counter seating and booth-lined dining room had long doubled as an informal community gathering spot for regulars, and the makeover kept that basic footprint intact rather than reworking the space into something unrecognizable, concentrating new investment on kitchen equipment and line organization so a small crew could keep pace with a full breakfast-and-lunch rush. Producers framed the family's decades-long tenure running the diner as central to the episode's stakes, presenting the rescue as an effort to preserve a multi-generational livelihood rather than to reinvent the business as a different kind of restaurant.

Featured on Restaurant: Impossible

Season / episode
Season 9, Episode 6
Original air date
Episode title
No Laughing Matter
What was featured
Diner dining-room and kitchen-workflow renovation
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Uncle Andy's Diner

Frequently asked questions

Is Uncle Andy's Diner still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Uncle Andy's Diner has closed — confirmed via pressherald.com, May 8, 2020.

What happened to Uncle Andy's Diner after Restaurant: Impossible?

Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network)'s "No Laughing Matter" visited Uncle Andy's Diner, a longtime family-run diner in the greater Portland, Maine area (show materials list the location as Portland; the diner's verified street address places it in neighboring South Portland). As of September 2026, Uncle Andy's Diner has closed — confirmed via pressherald.com, May 8, 2020.

Is Uncle Andy's Diner permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Uncle Andy's Diner has closed — confirmed via pressherald.com, May 8, 2020. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Uncle Andy's Diner located?

171 Ocean St, South Portland, ME 04106. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Restaurant: Impossible featured Uncle Andy's Diner?

Season 9, Episode 6 of Restaurant: Impossible, first aired August 27, 2014. The episode is titled “No Laughing Matter”.

Did the makeover last at Uncle Andy's Diner?

The episode first aired August 27, 2014. Our most recent check was September 7, 2026 — 12 years later —: As of September 2026, Uncle Andy's Diner has closed — confirmed via pressherald.com, May 8, 2020.

Is Uncle Andy's Diner still using the Restaurant: Impossible menu or branding?

At the time of taping the diner had been operating since the 1950s, and Chef Robert Irvine found a kitchen and menu that had not been meaningfully updated in decades, along with strained family relationships among the people running the business day to day. Anything newer than our last check on September 7, 2026 may not be reflected here.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
171 Ocean St, South Portland, ME 04106
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • pressherald.com — https://www.pressherald.com/2020/05/08/uncle-andys-diner-to-close-after-66-years-in-south-portland/
  • wabi.tv — https://www.wabi.tv/content/news/After-66-years-Uncle-Andys-Diner-serves-one-more-pancake-570334941.html
  • foodnetworkgossip.com — https://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2020/06/uncle-andys-diner-from-restaurant.html

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