Newington: Complete!

Newington: Complete!
Olympia Diner & Carvel Ice Cream

Here is the CTMQ Guide to Newington with my list and stories about everything I’ve done there!

After a decade of writing CTMQ, I decided to try to “complete” towns. In that decade of traveling and writing, I had already done a lot of stuff in many of our towns already. However, I have been continually surprised by how much more there often is to do. This page includes my “town completion celebration meal” and recap of my Newington experiences.

Let’s get to it.

Newington was my: 38th town completed
First CTMQ Page: Doogie’s Hot Dog, 2009

The Celebration

Newington is a perfectly fine town. Most people who don’t live there are only familiar with it’s place on the Berlin Turnpike. It is a suburban town with a bunch of restaurants so I had my druthers of where to celebrate my momentous completion. I toyed with the idea of going to the most out-of-place Ruth’s Chris steakhouse in the world: between a gas station and a hot dog stand across a commercial highway from a Dairy Queen and a carwash. I have no idea how Ruth’s Chris survives here. So, yeah, that would have been fun to explore but the idea never sat right with me.

An absurdly overpriced steakhouse just doesn’t seem to fit Newington at all. Like… at all. So I asked an expert. My Newington born and raised friend Marnie. She would know how Newington would celebrate Newington:

And with that, my decision was made. I’d go back to The Olympia for one last meal before it is razed in favor of some soulless fast casual something or other. True Newington. Real Newington. Delicious Newington?

Record scratch

Diner-lovin’ Newington! The bid to buy the diner pulled out in mid-2025 and while the diner is still for sale, it seems as though any buyer will likely keep it as the Olympia. So while that completely dismantles the entire theme I had going on for this page, it’s great news.

Like… I was going to say things like:

I’d been to the Olympia before. Everyone in Connecticut outside of Fairfield County has. So this return visit wasn’t super exciting for me and was, in fact, rather maudlin. This would likely be the last time I’d ever eat here. I brought my son Damian along and for the first time in my life, I sat in the dining room. (Despite the reprieve, it still may be the last time I ever go there.)

The dining room was added to the diner in 1986, doubling the square footage to accommodate the increasing business. This room boasts a quieter, relaxed ambiance. But the dining room isn’t, like, the true diner experience. And The Olympia is a true O’Mahony Diner.

The Olympia Diner was crafted by the Jerry O’Mahony Diner Company, of New Jersey, who was said to have produced 2,000 diners from 1917 to 1941. These roadside diners were primarily metal buildings, prefabricated in a factory, and trucked to the location. The Olympia, originally opened in Massachusetts, was brought to Newington in 1954.

It’s a lovely diner. I had pretty much the most normal breakfast possible, and Damian had some waffles with the works.

We both ate everything. It was all very unceremonious. But that’s how it should be. One, The Olympia is a working man’s diner. Celebrations would feel strange here. And two, per Marnie’s suggestion above, we still had to hit up Carvel – apparently a Newington celebration tradition.

So that’s exactly what we did.

Newington’s Carvel location is not on the Turnpike, but rather in the town’s “downtown” area. I am not a Carvel Connoisseur, so being inside of one was all new to me. Look! Fudgie the Whale is a real thing! I was drawn to the “new” Lemonberry flavor, so that’s what I got. It was absolutely delicious.

But as I ate it, I stared at the sign and it started to really bother me.

Like, how did this get through all the marketing and branding geniuses at Carvel?

Delicious brains.

NOW I could celebrate. Newington’s shape is a rectangle and the town’s fun quotient isn’t exactly off the charts. But you know what? It still took me 19 years to CTMQ-complete the rectangle.

Newington Wrap-Up

The fact that I ate at a chain restaurant – the ONLY one of the first 38 town completion celebrations – is somehow perfectly fitting for Newington. The Berlin Turnpike has every chain restaurant known to man, and as you read above, the Olympia Diner was going to become one when I ate there.

That’s not to say Newington is soulless. In fact, one of our favorite take out spots is here (Rooster Co, right next to Carvel) and who can forget the wonders of Naija?

But yeah, Newington is fairly soulless. No more so than a hundred other towns around the state. Okay, maybe 50. The ARRL Heritage Museum is way more interesting than it deserves to be and the two main historic house museums are both excellently maintained and presented.

There isn’t really any worthwhile hiking, but the town makes up for that with four ridiculous superlatives. And you know I love my ridiculous superlatives!

You have the world’s largest Dairy Store! The country’s longest stainless steel diner! The only Iwo Jima Memorial in the US made from rocks and sand from Iwo Jima! And, of course, the stupid “smallest waterfall in the US.”

Thanks for the memories, Newington!

Thought exercise: If I had to send someone to Newington for a daytrip, I’d say to grab breakfast at the Olympia Diner if they’re still open, and then cruise up and down the Berlin Turnpike a couple times. Get some shopping done I guess. Eat a foot-long hot dog at Doogie’s. Go check out “the world’s smallest waterfall” and walk up to the library. It’s a nice library. If you can, you should check out the ARRL Heritage Museum because it’s well done and unique. Then go drive around the Turnpike some more to find something to do like Laser Tag or mattress shopping. Newington!

Surprise: There is nothing surprising about Newington, but I surprised the docent at The Enoch Kelsey House when he thought I was former mayor Stephen Woods and not weirdo museumgoer Stephen Wood.
Favorite fact: That the town voted Stephen Woods for mayor
Disappointment: The Olympia Diner closing The trails are generally kind of lame

Newington: Done!

Previous completed town: Simsbury!
Next completed town: TBD