The regulars have been a little more regular at Linda’s Winter Park Diner this past week, says Linda D’Auria.

She’s the joint’s namesake. Its keeper for the past 35 years. And the community’s been turning out enthusiastically to pay respects.

D’Auria, 67, recently announced she’d sold the iconic eatery, and she and her staff — several of whom have worked there for upwards of 20 years — will be the last team to bring breakfast and lunch to the community from this little parcel of Fairbanks Avenue.

“It’s bittersweet,” says D’Auria, who purchased the place in 1988. “I have been blessed to have loyal customers who have known me for 35 years. We have aged together,” she jokes. “Like fine wine.”

Staffers weren’t too surprised when she broke the news last week.

“They’ve been with me a long time,” D’Auria says. “They knew that I was ready.”

But for years, D’Auria was all ambition, all the time, a good thing not merely for the mother of a young child (daughter Gina, now 33, was born two years after she bought the place) but for a community needing homestyle meals. Linda’s has long been legendary for its omelets and center-cut bacon breakfasts. Diner classic specials — liver and onions, roast chicken and more — would sometimes lure regulars in twice a day.

“From the get-go, the diner was a destination because, at the time, there were only like three restaurants on Fairbanks,” D’Auria says. “There were no fast-food franchises here, and everything was independently owned and operated. We’ve seen a lot of changes; you better believe it. We’ve survived recessions and presidents, but nothing was crazier than COVID-19.”

Forced closed for three full months, D’Auria says it was a fearful time. She nearly folded. She wanted to.

“But believe it or not, my workers wanted to come back,” she says. “My chef called me at least every three or four days to tell me we couldn’t go out like that.”

She pressed on, but they returned to a very different world.

“There were all these rules and regulations. Everybody was still pretty scared. But they wanted to get back out.”

D’Auria’s daughter, Gina Dilly, remembers how energized the staff was to return to work.

“So many of them have been with her for 25 years or more, and I think that speaks volumes about the woman and the boss that she is. She’s always been so generous and caring and an equal opportunity employer,” Dilly says. “People respect and admire her. And everybody’s been very loyal.”

Customer support was crucial, too, D’Auria said. Regulars came for take-out, which was tricky without a drive-thru — at the time, there were still limitations on how many they could seat.

“It was very frustrating,” she says, “but we worked around it.” And when she learned that installing plexiglass would allow her to fill every booth, a contractor/customer jumped to the task to help. It was this level of support, she says, that got her back to being able to pay her staff what they deserve.

The post-COVID climate necessitated a small cut in hours, but it wasn’t a lack of business or staff that spurred D’Auria on to retirement but an odd balance of sadness and sweet serendipity.

“I lost my sister, who was my best friend and the matriarch of my family, just a month ago,” she says. “And she reminded me that I have to take time for myself and that I needed to get a life outside the diner before my good days were behind me.”

And though the loss has set her back some, D’Auria has been having many good days. Two and a half years ago, she embarked on a romance that has taken root. Travel is in her plans. As well as meeting her newest granddaughter. But she’s glad she will enjoy a lengthy goodbye to the business that brought her so much joy. D’Auria says they’ll remain open until at least the end of July.

“I knew I was never going to get rich there. Everyone there was working for a living,” she says. “But maybe the richness was in the love between me and my staff and my guests.”

She knows their names. She knows their children. She’ll miss them.

“But I’m excited to not race the clock every day,” she says. “When people ask me, ‘What are you going to do?’ I say, ‘Anything I want.”

Linda’s Winter Park Diner is located at 1700 W. Fairbanks Ave. in Winter Park.

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