Baker's Daughter Diner Puts New Spin On Familiar Swampscott Name

SWAMPSCOTT, MA – Deb Newman has these hand-crafted tables inside of her new Swampscott diner that she very much likes.

She had them made special for the Baker's Daughter Diner after she bought the business in February. She loves the way they look in the new Humphrey Street location.

Only, for now, nobody can sit at them and eat the scrumptious meals she sells for takeout-only due to the coronavirus health crisis.

"I'll tell you what was sad about it," an otherwise highly upbeat Newman told Patch of her experience opening a restaurant amid a worldwide pandemic. "They are beautiful tables indoors. I was excited to have people sitting at them."

Newman has tried her best not to be sad about much even though she bought the space that was formerly the Caffe Paolina Italian restaurant just three weeks before Gov. Charlie Baker ordered all restaurants closed due to the pending health crisis on March 15.

She said she then headed into the unknown future of a pandemic in "La La Land" as she focused on using the extra time to get the place just the way she wanted it before she was allowed to finally open.

Newman decided that time was September as the daughter of late Newman's Bakery owner Joe Neman opened the Baker's Daughter Diner.

"I wasn't devastated that we couldn't open," she said. "I wasn't scared financially even though I don't have that much money. I kept thinking that when the time comes I'll be able to make it work.

"I think I was waiting for the (coronavirus) numbers to come down. I have a science background so to me it made sense to wait."

A month after opening she said things are going well at the diner with the tables she is choosing to keep as decorations for now. With a capacity of 24, there would barely be enough room to seat more than a handful of people and maintain social distancing, and she said she would rather have masks on at all times inside the diner anyway.

"I could but I prefer not to," she said of indoor dining. "I don't want to be in a place where people are sitting there without masks."

The Baker's Daughter does have outdoor tables where people can sit and enjoy the array of meatless and vegan offerings that range from the "Almost Western Omelet" — everything but the ham — and the "Spicy Sweet Potato Boats."

"It's really important to me that people like coming here and are happy with the food," she said. "There are several unique things as far a breakfast sandwiches and grab-and-go things. I have some things that are yummy despite being vegan. Some people are afraid of vegan food."

She said the inspiration to open a vegetarian diner came from her own experience as a vegetarian having a hard time finding quality food suitable for breakfast.

"Whenever I would go out to eat with friends you would have to get some crummy grilled cheese, or flatbread that's sparse," she said. "I don't want to eat a salad wherever I go. I want something hearty that sticks your ribs."

Newman said she understands from her family's example that owning a diner or bakery is a passion play and that she is at the diner up to 14 hours a day.

One day, she will have her tables inside full. But, for now, she is content to have them staged as lovely decorations — along with the animal pictures that dot the space — in her new business working its way through the pandemic.

"When I was young my mother would always be worried," she reasoned. "She would say, 'Oh, Joe, we need to get a new whatever. He would always say: 'Don't worry about it. I'll work another day.'

"If you keep working, it will all come back to you."