Bristol – "SAUSAGE ON!" ... "GIVE ME A BOBBY-O WITH A COMBO!" The familiar shouts among the cling and clatter of dishes and silverware at the Hope Diner will soon be seen and heard on TV. Mickey Silva, owner of the diner since 1983, said production people from the Rhode Island PBS show "New England Portrait" walked into his restaurant a few weeks ago and asked if he was interested in being part of a documentary featuring New England diners.

He said yes.

Mickey Silva's diner will be a focus of a TV documentary scheduled to air on Monday, June 2, at 7 p.m. Mr. Silva's daughter, Lorene, is on the right.

Vincent "Jim" Troiano, 89, has been going to the Hope Diner since he was 12 years old.

When he's not cooking behind the grill, Bobby Silva likes to mix it up in the back kitchen.

"I was excited. It was a wonderful thing," said Mr. Silva. His daughter, Lorene, who helps run the restaurant along with her brother, Bobby, and mother, Dorothy, said film crews have already come and gone. Asked why the show chose the Hope Diner, which has been at its present location since the 1930s, Mr. Silva shrugged, "I dunno, but we have a lot of great customers. People come as far as Warwick and Attleboro. Connecticut. All of New England. We've even had them from Australia." When the show interviewed customers why they came to the diner, they responded that it was like being at home and everyone calls each other by name.

Mr. Silva nodded toward the restaurant entrance, "You are a stranger but once when you come through that door."

"I've been coming here since I was 12 years old," said Vincent Troiano, 89. (Mr. Vincent was quick to point out that everyone calls him Jim.) "It's a good diner with good food."

The program focuses on five New England diners and is scheduled to air on Monday, June 2, at 7 p.m., and will repeat on Sunday, June 8, at 11:30 a.m.

Mr. Silva pointed to a gentleman that had just walked through the door and seated himself at a table. Mr. Silva's wife walked over to take his coffee order. It was 15 minutes after closing.

"Even when we're closed we're serving, said Mr. Silva, smiling.

Rob Merwin

rmerwin@eastbaynewspapers.com