Morins Celebrates 100 Years of Good Food

Morin family of Attleboro to celebrate 100 years of good food 07:05 AM EDT on Friday, April 8, 2011

By Paul Grimaldi Journal Staff Writer

Michael Sousa, a sous chef at Morin’s, prepares hundreds of meals a day in the company’s spacious kitchens.

ATTLEBORO For 100 years, the Morin family has served up comfort food and canapés to factory workers and venture capitalists, whether inside a diner that’s become an Attleboro institution or in the gilded halls of Newport mansions.

The Morin family business evolved over the decades to the point where now it is essentially two businesses. Bill and Russell Morin, the family’s third generation of owners, oversee Morin’s Diner and Russell Morin Fine Catering, respectively.

“It’s a lot of hard work, the restaurant and the catering business,” Bill said. “There’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”

Now in their mid-60s, both men still put in six- and seven-day weeks year-round.

In 2006, the Rhode Island Hospitality Association named the catering business Caterer of the Year. In 2009, the popular Food Network program “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” featured the South Main Street diner.

They will mark the 100th anniversary next month.

To reach that mark, the brothers have had to evolve their operations.

Factory workers were once the bread-and-butter of the diner business. At one time, the Balfour jewelry company employed 1,500 workers in a factory across the street.

“It was almost a no-brainer,” Bill said. “We kind of catered to the Balfour workers.”

When Balfour pulled out of the city, “it was like getting the rug pulled out from underneath you,” he said. The diner began serving alcohol in the mid-1980s and part of the diner is now a sports bar.

It was the loss of a catering contract with the New England Patriots that began the latest series of changes to Russell’s side of the business.

“I had to reinvent the business,” Russell said. “I was going in too many different directions.

“I decided I needed to be just a ‘fine’ caterer.”

That led to him focusing on landing catering contracts in Newport, where the Gilded Age mansions provide the backdrop for weddings that ring up expensive catering bills — some in the millions of dollars.

“If you’ve got 10 weddings on a Saturday, what you want to do is the 10 most-profitable weddings,” he said.

“The recession wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t pretty,” he said, noting that business dropped 10 percent in 2009. When the recession hit, Russell Morin sought business in Worcester, Mass., and in eastern Connecticut.

Neither Bill, 64, nor Russell, 65, sound inclined to give up working now that the business started by their grandfather has reached its centennial. The brothers each have three children, including one child training to take over operations.

“I think they look at Russ and I, and say, “They’re still pushing 6½, 7 days a week — is that going to be me?” Bill said.

TIMELINE A century of cuisine 1911: Jean Baptiste Morin co-founds Franklin Café in Attleboro.

1922: J.B. buys out partner.

1932: J.B. moves restaurant within Attleboro, renames it Morin’s Diner.

1946: Ralph “Russ” Morin, J.B.’s son, takes over diner.

1950s: Russell Jr. and his brother, Bill, begin work at diner.

1967: Russell Jr. graduates from Cornell University hotel school.

1970: Russell Jr. graduates from Culinary Institute of America.

1982: Bill and Russell separate diner and catering operations, build commissary.

2009: Commissary operation changes to Russell Morin Fine Catering.

2011: Morin food operations mark 100th anniversary.

TIMELINE A century of cuisine 1911: Jean Baptiste Morin co-founds Franklin Café in Attleboro.

1922: J.B. buys out partner.

1932: J.B. moves restaurant within Attleboro, renames it Morin’s Diner.

1946: Ralph “Russ” Morin, J.B.’s son, takes over diner.

1950s: Russell Jr. and his brother, Bill, begin work at diner.

1967: Russell Jr. graduates from Cornell University hotel school.

1970: Russell Jr. graduates from Culinary Institute of America.

1982: Bill and Russell separate diner and catering operations, build commissary.

2009: Commissary operation changes to Russell Morin Fine Catering.

2011: Morin food operations mark 100th anniversary.