Order up: Diner set to reopen in Jan.

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) -- The pancakes are going to be coming back to a closed Fall River staple, if the new owners of Al Mac's Diner have anything to say about it. The Dunse family is hoping to return the diner to its glory days.

The diner on President Avenue - one of those old, gleaming steel-looking prefab dining-car style buildings with the comfortable old counter and spinning stools inside - prompts many a story from Fall River residents.

"I had my first chocolate pancake at the end of the bar... and kind of fell in love with breakfast food," Rob Dunse, one of the new family of co-owners, said Tuesday.

"JUSTLY FAMOUS SINCE 1910," reads a border beneath a rooftop neon sign, the diner's name in script.

It had to close earlier this year, back in July, after previous owner Norm Gauthier fell victim to the economy, as he told the Fall River Herald-News.

But Rob Dunse, 25 and a chef himself, is part of the new generation ready to keep old traditions alive. As with any enterprise promoted today, there's a website in the works, almacsdiner.net. A couple other new touches will arrive, but many details will stay the same.

The enterprise is now uniting the family, said his mother Susan. Rob's sister Laura is also a co-owner. "Any parent... would love to be able to have a close relationship with their kids, especially when they're grown. I think it's the ideal thing -- to have a restaurant," Susan said.

The timing was perfect, Rob said. He'd just been in the process of moving home when he saw the FOR LEASE sign in Al Mac's window.

They're expected to be back open and feeding people by January.