With hearty food, bottomless coffee and good conversation, the newly reopened Mattapoisett Diner still has all the charm of a 1950s eatery.

Most recently operated under the moniker South Coast Local Diner, the restaurant has gotten a minor facelift from Fairhaven restaurateur Matt Gamache.

“This is back to a traditional diner,” he said.

Gamache grew up just over the Fairhaven line and remembers the restaurant through several of its incarnations.

The prefab stainless steel diner was built by the New Jersey Mountain View Diner Company, which had the slogan, “A Mountain View Diner will last a lifetime.”

The short-order diner opened as the Nest Diner in the 1950s, said Gamache (though he doesn’t go back that far.) It later became the Mattapoisett Diner and the name switched back and forth a few times as it changed hands.

Gamache decided to return the name to the Mattapoisett Diner for one reason.

“I had a bunch of sexy names for it – the Herring Run Diner, the Harborview Diner. I just thought everybody would refer to it back to the Mattapoisett Diner even if I changed the name, ” Gamache said.

In addition to the Courtyard Restaurant in Fairhaven, Gamache owns a similar roadside rail car stop called Jake’s Diner. And one thing is for certain, he knows restaurants inside and out.

“I started out as a busboy and dishwasher, was a bartender, was a waiter, was a cook. Did pretty much everything,” he said. “I always had the dream in the back of my mind that I’d like to get into the business.”

After working in car sales for a few years, the opportunity arose to purchase the Courtyard. That was 20 years ago.

“The rest, as they say, is history,” Gamache said.

For years customers have requested a restaurant in Mattapoisett, so when Gamache heard the South Coast Local owners weren’t renewing their lease, he called up the building’s proprietor in California and negotiated a contract.

Throughout February Gamache and his crew got the diner back into shape, in particular gutting and renovating the kitchen. On opening day, Tuesday, Feb. 11, the new Mattapoisett Diner sign was still going up as patrons began piling into the pleather booths early with requests for hot coffee and eggs "eggs(actly) how you like it."

Like any good diner, there is a counter with bar stools that swivel and a charming waitstaff willing to chat in between orders. The food is pretty standard fare too, said Gamache.

“It’s going to be fresh ingredients, just like mom used to cook: meat loaves, meat pies, big burgers at a very fair and reasonable price. Fish and chips, homemade onion rings.”

Gamache’s award winning clam chowder, fresh soups, crepes and five incarnations of eggs benedict are also on the menu.

The coffee, however, won’t be the burnt generic variety of generation’s past. The diner grinds the beans for each pot of “really good coffee.”

Gamache’s friend, Johnny Murphy, remembers coming to the diner as a kid in the 1960s when it was The Nest and is pleased to see it open once again.

“It’s just beautiful the work they’ve put into it,” said Murphy. “I’m just so happy for him.

Another patron on opening day, Fran Ward, said she frequents diners on the South Coast and said she drops into the diner “now and again.”

“I love these places,” said Ward.

The Mattapoisett Diner is open seven days a week form 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is located at 81 Fairhaven Rd (Route 6.)