Quechee
The Burlington-based chain, which includes a full-service location in Hanover and a series of “fast casual” year-round and seasonal locations sprinkled throughout Vermont, will move into the approximately 2,000-square-foot space previously run as a cafe by Jake’s Quechee Market staff.
Skinny Pancake ran a temporary “pop-up” restaurant inside the cafe space during the holidays, and the food was well-received, Skinny Pancake co-owner Benjy Adler said. The full-scale restaurant is expected to open sometime in February.
Adler said that while most of the menu items offered at the other restaurants will be available — including its trademark selection of eclectic crepe dishes — the Quechee location will strive toward a coffee shop atmosphere with an emphasis on comfortable seating and space for meetings and laptop work. The site is on Route 4 in a heavily traveled corridor west of Quechee Gorge.
Adler expects coffee and espresso drinks from Waterbury, Vt.-based Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea to be popular, though a line of draft beer also will be available.
“One of the main things we heard talking to people locally is that a missing piece of the food service in the area is a coffee shop,” Adler said in a Friday phone interview. “We thought, ‘We can do that.’ ”
In addition to crepes, customers can expect dining options to include salads, soups, burgers and sandwiches. The company campaigns on being environmentally conscious and sourcing as much food as possible locally, and soon will offer grass-fed beef burgers from Vershire’s Shire Beef in both Hanover and Quechee, according to the news release.
“We’ve consistently found that operating multiple locations in proximity to each other increases the amount of food we can purchase locally,” executive chef Keith Lada said in the release. “We’ll now be able to buy more from our existing farmers in the Upper Valley while we also (expand) to some additional farms.”
Once affiliated with the nine-store Jake’s Market & Deli chain — owner Ed Kerrigan sold all but the Quechee location last year — Jake’s Quechee Market had operated a cafe in a separate space adjacent to its 8,000-square-foot supermarket since the store’s 2013 opening, according to general manager James Kerrigan, Ed’s son.
Eventually, running both enterprises concurrently — as well as a deli in the supermarket that also offers prepared foods — became difficult, James Kerrigan said.
“We were always trying to find the right mix of products in both spaces,” James Kerrigan said. “We were essentially trying to run a restaurant and a retail location at the same time with the same staff.”
Jake’s cashier Morgan Smith, of Quechee, said switching from one side to the other was challenging at times.
“I did four days in the cafe and two in the supermarket, and you always kind of had to switch gears,” said Smith, a Plymouth State University student who is working at Jake’s while on break. “I kind of felt bad for the deli sometimes, because they’d have all these salads made, but (the cafe) would be a lot more busy.”
Customer Cathy Leone, of Quechee, said having a disparate business next store will make it easier to choose where to shop.
“It was kind of confusing, having so much stuff (under the Jake’s name),” Leone said. “I think it will be more clear to have a restaurant that’s a separate entity next door.”
Hartland landscaper and excavator Richard Jenks said he likely will continue to patronize Jake’s deli while experimenting with Skinny Pancake.
“I like to break things up,” said Jenks, who’d just finished a snack in the deli area with young sons Noah, Owen and Joey. “If I’ve been eating deli sandwiches for a few days, I might switch over to crepes for a couple of days. I like the versatility this place will have.”
Skinny Pancake, born in 2003 when Benjy Adler and his brother, Jonny, began selling crepes out of a makeshift wooden cart on Burlington’s Church Street, four years later opened its flagship location on the Burlington waterfront. It now has three locations in the Burlington area — including at Burlington International Airport and at the University of Vermont — as well as year-round locations in Montpelier and Hanover and seasonal enterprises at Stowe Mountain resort and Sugarbush Ski Area.
Adler is hoping the chain’s newest location will benefit from the owners’ experience from the previous seven.
“We’re 15 years into this journey, and the further we get into it the better we understand how to do the job right,” he said.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.