click to enlarge - Melissa Pasanen
- Michael Bissonette in front of the Dutch Mill Diner
Stepping into the Dutch Mill restaurant feels a little like traveling back in time. The distinctive Delft blue-shingled building with its windmill topper has graced Route 7 in Shelburne for almost a century. Inside the modest restaurant, the Bissonette family will soon celebrate 30 years of serving hearty, homestyle breakfast and lunch at affordable prices.
A fat Shelburne Omelet stuffed with apple, ham and cheddar, served alongside toast and home fries, rings up at $10.95. The gravy-blanketed hot turkey sandwich, served with fries or mashed potatoes and coleslaw, costs $11.95. Sturdy white mugs of coffee are $3 with endless refills. (Just don't ask for herbal tea; it's not of the era.)
Third-generation co-owner Michael Bissonette, 35, has been in charge for the past decade, with behind-the-scenes support from his wife, Jessica. It's been an intense couple of years for the family. Michael's stepmom, Marilou Estacio, passed away in July 2022, and he lost his dad, Jamie, on February 6. Both were fixtures at the Dutch Mill: Marilou feisty and petite; Jamie a gentle, lumbering bear of a man.
Earlier this year, the Bissonettes finalized a deal to sell half of the two-acre property to a development partnership that is building an assisted-living facility for the Howard Center just south of the restaurant. The old motel has been demolished to make way for a planned apartment building. The family still owns the Shelburne Camping campground and cabins at the rear of the parcel.
In a nod to its next era, on March 1 Michael renamed the restaurant the Dutch Mill Diner, a small but important update from its original name, the Dutch Mill Family Restaurant.
"People can relate to a diner," Michael said, noting that the word is more legible on a sign and helps with internet searches. "It was a way of having a fresh start but keeping it the same."
click to enlarge - Melissa Pasanen
- Corned beef hash with eggs
A big photo of Jamie hangs behind the cash register under an illuminated, revolving Boston Celtics sign, part of a décor refresh and mechanical updates that were completed at the end of February. The room boasts new paint, flooring and cherry-red curtains, but the walls are still plastered with family photos and Boston sports paraphernalia, evoking the comfortable clutter of someone's living room.
The diner was once just that.
Before the family renovated the Dutch Mill building into a restaurant in 1995, it housed the motel reception up front and the home where Michael lived with his dad and Marilou in the back.
"This was our living room," Michael said. "I had my first birthday party by this pillar," he added, nodding at a structural support.
Michael began busing tables when he was 7. Twenty-nine years later, he's still clearing plates emptied of corned beef hash topped with poached eggs ($11.50) and combo club sandwiches triple-stacked with turkey, ham and bacon ($11.25), served with fresh-cut fries or chips.
"I never was forced to work. I just kind of liked being around my dad and working together," Michael said. "The plan was always for me to take this over. It was always my dad's dream to have a restaurant here."
Staying the course at the Dutch Mill is Michael's homage to his father. "I miss the times with just the two of us before we'd open — talking life, talking sports," Michael reminisced. "He was a hazelnut coffee guy. I'm a hazelnut coffee guy."
click to enlarge - Melissa Pasanen
- Meat loaf
Michael acknowledged that he has to strike a fine balance, "trying to evolve into the future while keeping it classic." On the classic side, diners will find two crusty-topped slabs of meat loaf with shiny mahogany gravy, freshly mashed red potatoes with their skins and a little saucer of creamy, sweet slaw ($11.95). Among the more modern menu options is a bacon-stuffed waffle with two eggs and toast ($11.95), inspired by a Food Network show.
About two-thirds of the menu falls under the $13 marker. "It's important to me to keep it affordable for the average family," Michael said.
The Dutch Mill participates in a local Age Well program that provides $5 meal tickets to seniors, a break-even proposition at best for the restaurant. "I'd rather be busy," Michael said. "It's a trade-off that works for us."
Early on a recent Thursday afternoon, 6-year-old Henry Crandall of Shelburne relished the Belgian waffle topped with whipped cream, strawberries and his own flourish of grape jelly ($9.95). It was a school-vacation treat to eat at the diner with his dad, David Crandall, who was finishing up the breakfast burrito with home fries ($12.95).
David said he had driven by the Dutch Mill many times before finally stopping in a few months earlier. The "quaint little family restaurant," he said, has become a go-to spot to take his two young sons.
Father and son Bissonette — one here, the other looking down from a photo on the wall — would be happy to hear that.
Dining on a Dime is a series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for around $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].