Tony DiMillo, a Portland native, built a career pursuing ambitious ideas, beginning with successful Portland restaurants including Anthony's on Fore Street, which he opened in 1954 and promoted with the slogan "The clams you eat here today slept last night in Casco Bay." In 1978, when Long Wharf on the Portland waterfront was offered for sale as a dilapidated, burned-out coal pier, he risked everything to buy it despite criticism, believing in the future of the waterfront. In 1979, he began rehabilitating the pier and built the marina there, which soon filled as the Old Port began to grow into a major retail center. In 1982, he pursued an even larger vision by converting a used car ferry into a floating restaurant beside the marina that could serve 600 people at a time. To finance it, he sent 250 letters to friends offering to sell "planks" in the restaurant for $1,000 each, raising $250,000 in 30 days. The restaurant went on to become the busiest in Maine, serving hundreds of thousands of customers annually, while the marina became a destination for megayachts from around the world. In the spring of 1998, a promenade designed by Tony was completed as a gift to the public. He and his wife, Arlene, were the parents of nine children.