Picture East Windsor - Then And Now

EAST WINDSOR, CT — The latest installment of this periodic informal series, highlighting businesses from East Windsor's past and what those locations look like today, brings us into the 1966 edition of the East Windsor High School yearbook, The Archive. Here we find a photo of the Windsor Grille, one of the most popular 24-hour eateries in northern Connecticut for more than four decades.

The restaurant opened at 9 South Main Street, or Route 5, in 1965, and was owned and operated for 44 years by Nick Tartsinis. The decor was highlighted by small individual jukeboxes at every booth.

Also of note are those rectangular objects seen beneath the sign. For those of you under age 45, those were called phone booths. At that time, phones were used to ... ummm ... call people.

Over the years, the name evolved into the East Windsor Grille, and ultimately the East Windsor Restaurant. The diner closed for good in early 2009, and Tartsinis passed away in 2019 at age 74.

In 2016, a Mercury Price Cutter gas station and convenience store opened at the location, later becoming a Cumberland Farms.

Here is a contemporary look at the property.