Henry's Diner Hash Skillet Sizzles On Under New Ownership

The Vermonter hash skillet, house-baked Greek toast and a coffee Credit: Daria Bishop

Neither of the customers perched near me at the Henry’s Diner counter on a recent Monday morning knew or cared that the 99-year-old eatery had changed hands earlier this year. And Patricio Ortiz, the downtown Burlington landmark’s new owner, is just fine with that.

Ortiz left a successful engineering career to buy the Bank Street diner in February for $240,000 from Bill and Naomi Maglaris, who had owned Henry’s since 2004 and were ready to retire. First, though, he spent several months poring over the business’ balance sheets.

“We turn 100 next year. The numbers were solid,” Ortiz, 44, said. “Basically, my goal is to keep it running right: I don’t break it, it’s gonna work.”

So far, so good, according to at least two of Henry’s loyal customers — and me — who have all found favorite dishes and the warm, friendly ambience inside the gray stucco walls unchanged.

Two stools to my right, Burlington resident Charles Olar spooned up the last of his grits and said he visits the diner for breakfast whenever he can fit it around his work schedule. “The food don’t change,” he said appreciatively. “I like the mom-and-pop feel, the hometown feel.”

Depending on his appetite, the 32-year-old Florida native orders either the Hungry Henry ($16.95) or the Little Henry ($13.95) which he orders with sausage patties and grits subbed for the home fries. The southern staple, Olar noted, is not easy to find on Vermont menus.

At the end of the counter, Cindy O’Hara, also of Burlington, said she treats herself to a Henry’s breakfast every couple of months. She and I have the same go-to diner order: corned beef hash.

“I sometimes cringe when I see homemade corned beef hash on a menu,” O’Hara, 43, admitted. But the finely ground, house-brined and -braised beef version at Henry’s more than meets her standards. It’s fried up with onions and served on a bed of crunchy home fries topped with a little melted cheddar and two eggs in a sturdy cast-iron skillet.

“It’s the right consistency, chopped correctly with the right seasonings,” O’Hara said, “and I like the skillet with everything in there all together.”

My rock-solid appreciation of Henry’s Vermonter hash skillet ($13.95) grew during my recent visit, when the diner’s general manager, Kim Smith, recommended house-baked Greek toast for the dish’s carb crown. The generously buttered, thickly sliced, craggy-textured white bread with a sesame-speckled crust served beautifully to mop up the runny yolks of my perfectly over-easy eggs.

Smith, 54, is on the roster of seven diner employees who have stayed through the ownership transition. Without them, Ortiz said, he would be lost. Nodding toward Smith bustling around the diner, he said, “She’s more than my right hand.”

Preserving a slice of Americana was never a dream for Ortiz, who came to the U.S. from Argentina as a Fulbright scholar 17 years ago. In 2016, he moved to Vermont, where his wife was completing her PhD. The couple and their two children now live in Richmond.

Kim Smith and Patricio Ortiz Credit: Daria Bishop

After working for others for many years, Ortiz had resolved to become his own boss and looked for a solid business in which to invest. “It could have been a chocolate factory. It could have been a factory that makes buttons,” he said.

Unlike her boss, Smith has decades of diner experience, including managing the Maple City Diner in St. Albans for a dozen years. (Rumor has it that she occasionally makes a delectable peanut butter cream pie with an Oreo crust for the Henry’s dessert case.)

“Patricio came in green, but he’s a good learner,” she said of Ortiz. The hands-on owner mostly works behind the scenes — improving processes, doing quality control and fixing equipment when it goes on the fritz — but he’s mastered takeout orders, Smith said. “My next trick is, he’s going to be serving tables,” she said with a chuckle.

Ortiz, an affable strawberry blond with a thick accent, is willing to jump in wherever he’s needed, but he’s happiest keeping a low profile. Parts of Henry’s menu reflect the past owners’ Greek heritage — for instance, Ortiz’s favorite Santorini ($10.25), an egg sandwich dressed with spinach, tomato and feta and served on that excellent Greek bread. Asked if any Argentinean classics might show up on the menu, though, the new owner demurred.

“I don’t push my taste on the diner,” he said. “Henry’s has its own identity and spirit. I won’t try to put a Patricio Ortiz spin on it. It’s an American diner.”

“One Dish” is a series that samples a single menu item — new, classic or fleeting — at a Vermont restaurant or other food venue. Know of a great plate we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.

The original print version of this article was headlined “Heavenly Hash | Revisiting Henry’s Diner undernew ownership to enjoy an old favorite”