The Authentic Pancake Home replaces Boca Restaurant in Westport
WESTPORT — Residents will have the ability to fulfill their candy and savory breakfast cravings…
WESTPORT — Residents will have the ability to fulfill their candy and savory breakfast cravings this summer season as The Authentic Pancake Home will get set to open on Important Road.
The brand new eatery will likely be at 33-51 Important St., the house beforehand occupied by Boca Restaurant.
Blake Williams, proprietor of the pancake home, mentioned he and his enterprise accomplice had been on the lookout for one other location for greater than a 12 months and stumbled onto Westport after viewing a few dozen different places up the coast. He mentioned he wished to be inside about 30 miles of their White Plains, N.Y. location in order that the enterprise might develop “organically.”
He mentioned they’d initially come to Westport to have a look at one other location and heard of the Important Road spot whereas there.
“We stopped by on a whim,” Williams mentioned.
Williams mentioned it was a pleasant day trip and the pedestrian visitors was “superior.” He mentioned in addition they thought the co-tenancy of the constructing was “nice.”
“We heard numerous good issues about this house and it has numerous good historical past,” Williams mentioned. “From the group perspective, it seem to be a group that was vibrant and rising. It hit numerous completely different bins that we have been on the lookout for.”
One added field that the situation checked off was that it was a former restaurant. Williams mentioned whereas that wasn’t important, it was helpful.
“It was one thing that was an enormous plus for us,” he mentioned. “It was one thing that was already a restaurant and already had been there for some time and had some success. The group knew it as a restaurant.”
Williams mentioned he first obtained within the pancake enterprise greater than a decade in the past, when he and his enterprise accomplice have been looking for a enterprise to open collectively on the West Coast the place they dwell. They opened their first location in Washington in 2009 earlier than increasing to 6 extra within the state, with an eighth one on the best way.
Two years in the past, they have been approached by one other franchise proprietor to purchase a location in White Plains. Williams mentioned their expertise with opening a restaurant throughout a recession in 2009 and the space between their places in Washington gave them confidence to develop to the East Coast within the midst of the pandemic.
“The recession sort of fell upon us after we have been opening and I believe within the long-term we seen it as a optimistic,” Williams mentioned. “We discovered the right way to function in lean occasions and the right way to be environment friendly.”
“When the pandemic hit, it allowed us to be versatile and adapt to the circumstances round us,” he mentioned.
This included shifting the enterprise mannequin in the course of the pandemic from 5 p.c carryout to one hundred pc carryout. He mentioned now it’s about half.
When it comes to distance, a number of of their places in Washington are a pair hundred miles aside. He mentioned he and his enterprise accomplice already had expertise coping with distant operation and studying the challenges of managing and working shops that aren’t geographically shut. Due to this fact, working eating places on the East Coast appeared “much less daunting” to them once they opened the White Plains location and now Westport.
“We loved the expertise and loved popping out and attending to know the Northeast just a little bit,” Williams mentioned. “It’s simply been a objective of ours to develop within the space and develop.”
“We’re enthusiastic about Westport,” he added. “We’d like to open within the late summer season, however the massive hurdle now could be ordering sure tools and sure home equipment that we have to function our retailer.”
