Wreckage: Longstanding Denny’s in Portland, Maine, Demolished Into Pieces

I was wondering when this was going to happen. We knew the Denny's over near Congress Street in Portland, Maine, has been vacant for quite some time now, but we didn't know for some time if the town had any plans of replacing it with anything.

Lots of Mainers have had their questions and assumptions, but now, at least one question has been answered. Denny's is never coming back. The vacant restaurant building on the corner of Commercial Street has officially been torn down. I was driving by it the other day while it was happening, and all I could think was "Damn, another one."

According to the Bangor Daily News, the restaurant opened as a Denny’s in 1984 and was open 24/7 until the pandemic.

Is it just me, or does Portland, Maine, feel like it's been ever-changing in the last few years? From new restaurants and bars popping up constantly to medicinal marijuana shops being built around every corner, it feels like nothing is the same anymore. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. Change is good.

Here's what's replacing the Denny's on Congress Street in Portland: a roundabout!

According to wgme, The Maine Department of Transportation says the demolition is part of an overhaul of the area to build a roundabout and return two-way traffic to that stretch of Park Ave and Congress Street.

In a report by mainebiz, the former Denny's structure will be torn down in the next 30 days, according to Paul Merrill, a spokesman for the Maine DOT.