MARLBOROUGH – Over the past four decades, the Main Street Café at 182 Main St. – steps away from City Hall – has been serving up breakfast and lunch.
As Randy Scott said in a social media post, “Through all the years, there have been so many memories, so many friends, so many stories … not to mention mountains of bacon, hundreds of thousands of eggs and enough potatoes in different forms to fill our dining room.”
On Feb. 3, the café marked its 40th anniversary with a daylong celebration. Customers could order specials with 1980s prices, and admire the collection of photos going back to the days when the café was known as Bumpy’s.
In 1984, Scott bought the restaurant from William “Bumpy” Butler. Three years later, the restaurant moved from 182 Main St. to its present location.
Scott remembered when the restaurant would open at 5:30 a.m., “and there’d be 10 guys out there.” His early clientele included those who worked at the shoe factory and the General Motors plant in Framingham.
Scott is a lifelong resident of Marlborough. His father, Clifford, was the city’s police chief in the 1960s and 1970s. Randy started working at Bumpy’s in 1975, and he decided to buy the place when Butler decided to retire.
Scott’s wife and partner, Mary, is also a lifelong resident; her family had owned Curtis Orchards and Curtis Shoe. She started at the restaurant as a waitress in 2003, and married Randy Scott in 2005.
When asked about the secret to the restaurant’s continued success, Randy Scott said it comes down to “stubbornness.”
That, and a loyal clientele.
“I still have three customers who’ve been coming from the start,” he said. One of them comes once a month with her family.
Jess Shea has worked as a server since April, but she said, “I’ve been coming here since I was a kid.”
When asked about the best part of the café, she said, “It’s the people, the community. Everybody knows everybody.”
The Main Street Café is open Mondays-Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sundays from 7 a.m. to noon. For updates, visit the café’s Facebook page, or call 508-485-7664.
