(Closed. According to several sources, Libby’s Blue Line closed permanently on October 30, 2011. As of 2022, there’s now an Athens Diner in the same space)
On our recent trip to Montreal, on the way back to our home in Grantham, NH, we decided we needed to stop for lunch someplace near Burlington. While the Burlington area has many establishments we rather enjoy (including Hong’s Chinese Dumplings, Sneakers, and Penny Cluse Cafe, the last of which I realize I’ve never blogged here. I’ll have to correct that), we decided to try another area establishment, finally settling on checking out Libby’s Blue Line Diner, just off of I-89 in Colchester, VT.
Libby’s sits up on a hill right off of Route 2, and is your basic Worcester diner (Worcester Diner #838, to be exact), although like almost all extant Worcester diner cars, which suffer from a lack of facilities, when it was moved from MA and installed in Colchester, the owners build some additional seating area, an entryway, and an expanded kitchen onto the building. But they did an outstanding job with the interior restoration, so this particular Worcester Diner’s seating area isn’t as worn and tired as most (the exterior, however, looks like it could use some paint and mild repairs).
We arrived at Libby’s mid-afternoon on a Mondays (when most restaurants don’t get large crowds), and indeed, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The owner was actually the person waiting tables, and was very friendly in welcoming us, talking about the specials, and giving us a brief history of the diner.
Carol and I opted for burgers, and I got the mushroom burger and fries, as shown here. The result was a rather good diner burger. The patty was decently thick, with a really nice, crisp sear on it, but the interior was still juicy and medium rare. The mushrooms were nicely sauteed, and the fries were nicely crisped and tender in the middle. The bun was quite nice as well, being a nice hefty New England-style bulky roll, although they lost a point for not leaving enough bun on top when they split it, leaving a mere 3/8″ of bun on the lower “half” (a common problem up here in VT/NH, for some reason…). It didn’t really detract much from the burger quality, however.
In the end, Libby’s is your basic diner fare, but it’s diner fare done well, and a burger I rather enjoyed. I’ll definitely add this place to my repeat list.
I'm always jealous of your travels and meals!