It hit me one day in 2005 walking up 8th .Avenue on my way to work at Newsweek. During my bus ride from New Jersey， I'd been reading the online edition of the Portland Press Herald， the paper from my home town in Portland， Maine. For months I'd been following the story of a local landmark diner， closed for several months， that was being sold by the city to someone with a plan to bring it back to life. That morning， I read that the pending deal had fallen through， and somewhere during my walk from 42nd Street to 57th Street， I decided to buy it.