WEST LEBANON — The longtime proprietor of the Four Aces Diner has sold the restaurant, three years after putting it up for sale.

Outgoing owner Leann Briggs and her late brother, Steven Shorey, had been running the diner together on and off since 1991.

Briggs kept it running without Shorey, following his death last summer at age 73 after a multi-year battle with cancer, but she acknowledged it wasn’t easy.

“I’m missing a significant piece of the business without him,” she said in an interview several weeks ago.

Now at 65, she’s ready to let the restaurant go.

“I’m tired. I’m ready to retire. I’ve done it for a long time,” she said.

Shorey bought the diner a couple years after former owners Phil Mans and James Burnham moved Four Aces to its current location on Bridge Street in the mid ‘80s.

White River Junction resident Rich Acker can remember when the diner’s No.837 Worcester Lunch Car, a vintage diner car produced by a company in Worcester, Mass., was still located on Main Street. 

Today, the car is nestled into the side of an apartment building.

Now 78, Acker stops by Four Aces for lunch about three or four times a month. Normally he goes for an omelet, but on Thursday, he was hankering for a burger cooked medium rare.

“I want to taste the burger, I don’t want to taste the grill,” he said between bites.

Like Acker, Pat McGovern, of Lebanon, has been dining at Four Aces for years.

“It’s like coming to ‘Cheers’,” she said, referring to the ‘80s sitcom about a group of regulars at a Boston bar.

“Once you have a connection to the people who are here, it makes it more enjoyable,” she said.

On Thursday, she and her friend Jean Howe, of Wilder, had stopped by for lunch.

McGovern went for a salad with a side of onion rings, while Howe polished off a plate of over easy eggs, home fries and a Portuguese muffin.

“The prices can’t be beat,” McGovern said.

The new owners, Doug and Stephanie Allard, of Lebanon, who also own the Fort at Exit 18 on Heater Road, expanded their holdings with the purchase of the West Lebanon landmark on April 30.

When the sibling owners put the business and property up for sale in 2022, the asking price was $1.2 million. Doug Allard declined to confirm the selling price.

Briggs could not be reached by deadline on Thursday.

A May 6 filing with the Grafton County register of deeds indicates that the Allards borrowed $487,500 from Claremont Savings Bank and $112,500 from New Hampshire Community Loan Fund to finance the diner purchase.

With a menu of classic diner fare such as steak and eggs, corned beef hash and pancakes, Four Aces has been drawing crowds of hungry college kids and Upper Valley natives since its opening in 1952.

The Allards, who declined to comment for this story, have owned the Fort at Exit 18, which also focuses on breakfast offerings, since 2022.

“I don’t anticipate much is going to change,” Briggs s aid. “They plan on using everything that is in place right now … They might extend the hours a little bit, they might open Wednesdays.”

Four Aces is currently open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, except Wednesdays.

Now Briggs plans on sticking around home in West Lebanon.

“I’ve got a lot to do and I’ve got a house full of stuff,” she said.

Marion Umpleby can be reached at mumpleby@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.