More and more locals filling up at the ‘Station’

BALDWINVILLE — After owning and operating a restaurant in Athol for six years, the thought of taking over a popular eatery in Baldwinville didn’t seem too daunting to Shawn and Diana Graham, even though it had been five years since they had last organized a working kitchen, planned a menu, hired a staff, and cooked for the paying public. While neither said it was as easy as getting back on a bicycle, it would be hard to imagine any two people being more comfortable than this husband and wife team at work at Baldwinville Station, the eatery they purchased in June of last year.

“We owned Rockin’ Robin’s on Main Street in Athol, right across the street from the YMCA,” said Diana Graham. “We owned that from 2007 to 2013.”

That restaurant was named for Diana’s sister, whom the family lost to breast cancer. Diana’s mother then passed away in 2012, and family responsibilities necessitated Shawn and Diana abandoning the restaurant business – but only temporarily.

Diana went took a job in management in the Internal Revenue Service, where she worked until April 2018.

“I very much missed the connection to the customers,” she said. “In government, there’s a lot of bureaucracy. And the IRS is a union shop and you can imagine there’s a lot to managing the employees, too. I really missed the direct communication with customers you have in a restaurant.”

Diana explained that the wife of the previous owner of Baldwinville Station, at 9 Circle Street, a couple the Grahams had known for several years, had been relocated by her employer, Hewlett Packard, to another part of the country.

“We just started thinking,” she said. “If they’re looking to be together as a family and we’re looking to get back into the restaurant business, it might work out perfectly. So, we approached them with the idea, and the rest is history.”

Diana said the menu is similar to what it was under the previous owners, but a few tweaks have been made. There are specials available each day during the week, “and full-day weekend specials Saturday and Sunday for variety.”

Game Day specials leading up to Sunday’s Patriots-Charger game included eggs Benedict served on stuffed Texas French toast, a steak bomb omelet, a mushroom-Swiss burger, black diamond steak, a corned beef dinner, and chicken with wild rice soup. Diana also often makes homemade corned beef hash, roast beef hash, and – occasionally – pork hash, all of which are used in several dishes, including the popular eggs Irish.

The restaurant employs two full-time workers, not counting the Grahams, and 14 part-timers. Hours of operation are from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Tuesday through Sunday.

“We are planning on opening Mondays starting fairly soon,” said Diana.

She said much of the Baldwinville Station’s staff were already working at the restaurant when the change in ownership took place.

“From what the staff has said, things are a bit busier than they were before,” said Diana. “Of course, I had owned Rockin’ Robin’s and a lot of my customers followed me here. I have a big extended family, but also my employees are my family and my customers are my family.”

Her words ring true as she greets customers by their first name as they enter and leave the restaurant, and exchanges pleasantries about friends and family members.

“This really has become one big family,” she said. “That’s the way I want every customer who comes in here to feel.”