New Bedford’s Whaling City Diner Closing After This Week

Another establishment on Purchase Street in downtown New Bedford is set to close.

Just days after it was announced that The Vault Music Hall would be permanently shutting down and its pub would temporarily close, word broke that the Whaling City Diner is closing at the end of this week.

“People love rumors, don’t they?” diner owner Doug Sterling said when reached by WBSM on Tuesday afternoon, surprised that word had already gotten out. That just speaks, though, to what a staple of the downtown community the diner had become.

Sterling confirmed that this coming Sunday, Father’s Day, would be the last day for the Whaling City Diner.

“I waited three months before I made the decision," Sterling said. "I thought maybe it would get better, and it hasn’t."

Get our free mobile app

The owners said "extenuating circumstances" at the location have led to Whaling City Diner needing to close its doors.

“It’s a shame the world is coming to this,” Sterling said. “So many things are destroying small businesses.”

Sterling, who also owns and operates the Clark’s Point Creamery in the city’s South End, said he’s been focusing more on that location, working double shifts himself, but he said that business “rocks” at the creamery.

“I’m here year-round, I don’t have heavy staff. I come down here every single day,” he said.

Sterling and his wife Elsa DeFaria opened the Whaling City Diner in 2011. It became a downtown staple, even getting a visit from actor and comedian Kevin James last September.

The diner made headlines again in December when it was home to two amazing acts of kindness.