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Times-shamrock communiTy newspapers 149 Penn Avenue Scranton, PA 18503 Phone: (570) 348-9185 Fax: (570) 207-3448
February 25,2016
www.abingtonsuburban.com
As Seen on TV
ON THE INSIDE The latest happenings in our area Page 2
SUBURBAN
Glenburn Diner owners briefly become reality stars by Christopher Cornell
ABINGTON SUBURBAN EDITOR
There wasn’t a giant bash, but there was a small word-of-mouth gathering of family and friends at the Glenburn Grill and Bakery, 1144 Lackawanna Trail, last weekend, to celebrate the eatery’s 15 minutes of national fame. Regular customers will recall the temporary shutdown of the restaurant (though bakery orders were still taken) back in December, when a crew from The Food Network series American Diner Revival arrived with plans for a makeover. The episode debuted last weekend. Becoming a reality TV star wasn’t something Linda Norsen, who owns the place with her husband Alan, asked for. “I still don’t know who contacted them and asked them to come,” she said last weekend. “We didn’t call them. They called us. They told us what they wanted to do and we said ‘sure.’” A few weeks after the initial phone call, the crew, including hosts Ty Pennington and Amanda Freitag, descended on the place. Linda and Alan were shooed away for a nearby resort for some well-earned downtime. Then Pennington supervised a crew of volunteers from the area (rounded up via the restaurant’s Facebook page) as they began rennovations. “Some of the people that showed up we hadn’t seen for a while,” she said. “It felt like old home week.” The first thing the crew did was remove anything that indicated what time of year it was: namely Christmas decorations. “We had all our decorations up,” Norsen said, “and at Christmas we go all out.” But, since the episode would air months after the holiday, the decorations had to go. “It only took them about 15 minutes,” she added with a laugh. “My kids said they went back into the kitchen for a bit and when they came back out it was like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Nothing but wires and hooks.” The decks cleared, they went right to work. What had been more or less wasted space just inside and to the right of the entrance was
TS_CNG/SUBURBAN/PAGES [S01] | 02/24/16
09:55 | CORNELLCHR
Linda Norsen, co-owner of the Glenburn Grill & Bakery, checks out the waiting area created as part of the restaurant’s appearance on The Food Network.
PHOTO CHRISTOPHER CORNELL
turned into a comfortable waiting area. Wornout tile floors were replaced by new wooden flooring. The interior was painted a soft, light green. New electrical fixtures were installed. New chairs and tables were put in place of the old ones, which had gotten a bit dinged up over the years. In the kitchen, Freitag introduced the staff to five new dishes, to freshen up the menu: lemon, pear, poppy seed breakfast tarts; Dutch baby with cranberry-orange compote; chocolate-chip cookie dough breakfast tarts; savory bread pudding with sausage, spinach, poached eggs and parmesan-thyme cream; and root beer sloppy joes on pretzel buns. “We don’t have all the new items on the menu every day,” Norsen said. “For example, today we have two of the breakfast items. We rotate them.”
The items, as demonstrated by Freitag, seemed a bit labor intensive, but Norsen said the kitchen team wasn’t phased by them. “That’s kind of what we do here,” she said. “We don’t do pre-made stuff and people know it’s going to take a little longer.” Norsen said customers have been coming in and mentioning the show since it aired. “And there have been some new people, which is good,” she said. “The toughest thing when promoting a business is getting your name out there, so hopefully this will be a big boost for us. All in all, Norsen said it was a positive experience. “You hear about TV crews coming in and turning your life upside down but it wasn’t like that,” she said. “It was a bit of a whirlwind, and it was a little surreal but it was a lot of fun.”