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HomeMy WebLinkAboutUndated - The Register Article - Breakfast BattleIn Yarmouth Port Battle for the breakfast bunch begins By Bill Barnes bbarnes@cnc.com A battle to win the hearts, minds and breakfast trade of the contrarian bunch that once habituated Jack's Outback restaurant in Yarmouth Port is set to get under way today in a classy restau- rant just down the road. The Old Yarmouth Inn, founded in 1696, plans to open its doors for breakfast. It is a new venture for owners Arpad Voros and Sheila Fitzgerald, who freely admit that it was Jack's Outback's clos- ing that made the move possible. They have hired Outback cooks Ginger Nunes and Anna Grauer, a mother/daughter team, to work the kitchen and work the crowd. They have put together a menu designed to please those who made the Outback home for so many years. Up the road, at what was Jack's Outback, new owner Dona Baratta was caught by surprise by the move. When informed of it Tuesday morning she said, "I'm not real excited about it, but what can I do? "rime will tell," she said. "I need time to put my kitchen together. Hopefully, they will come here when ,I'm ready." Inside, the old restaurant has been stripped. Old grease is being scrubbed away and an interior designer, Susan Underwood.of South Yarmouth, is working with Baratta to remodel the place. BREAKFAST continued on Page 12 A new contender enters the competition for the breakfast crowd in Yarmouth Port. It's the Old Yarmouth Inn. Its not -so -secret weapon is a kitchen staff recruited from the late and lamented Jack's Outback. From left are former Outback cooks Anna Grauer and Ginger Nunes and owners Sheila Fitzgerald and Arpad Voros. Staff photo by Bill Barnes Breakfast battle begins continued from Page 1 Outside, the barn door that three weeks ago sported a sign offering a fond farewell from the staff and management, has a new sign from Baratta that apologizes for the interruption in ser- vice, promises to reopen sometime in August, asks for patience and understanding and invites people to call if they have questions. The sign also confirms something that has been rumored for some time. She signs off, "Thank you, Dona Baratta, Jack's Outback R." That could be a problem for her. Old patrons threatened to boycott if she held onto that cher- ished name and there is talk of a lawsuit by one of the former owners to protect it. Baratta declined to be interviewed for this story. Jack Braginton-Smith, for whom the restaurant was named, is back in the hospital recovering from a buildup of fluids that threatened his heart. He says he's feeling a lot better and he's relaxed about Baratta's choice of names. "Whatever she wants to call it is OK with me. She bought it. She owns it. We're out of it. A lot of people are distressed about it, but I'm not. Whatever will be, will be. She could call it Hernando's Hideaway, but she'd still have to prove herself," said Braginton-Smith. As to Nunes and Grauer going to the Old Yarmouth Inn, he said, "That's an ideal situation for those two kids and for the OYI. Of all the places in the community they could have picked, there isn't a better one." "I feel very badly for the lady who bought the place, but it's all a matter of survival," he said. Former partner Bob Edwards is less philo- sophical about losing the business he co -owned and operated for 23 years. He said he is still talk- ing to his attorneys about whether Baratta can be prevented from using the name. Braginton-Smith, Edwards and a number of minor partners lost the building they were leasing to Baratta when the property owners' heirs, who had been negotiating the sale of the property to Braginton-Smith, became impatient with delays in the process and put it on the market. Edwards was gleeful about the new competi- tion coming in. "That made my day. I think it's great that Anna and Ginger have gone to the OYI. I told Arpad to call it the Memorial Jack's Outback Breakfast Room," he said. He planned to be at this morning's opening. "I'm going to play nine holes of golf and then I'm coming over. I'll be there with my wife and the horn," he said. One of the few things Edwards was able to hold onto when the business was lost was the big brass bike horn he used to blow when customers left a sufficient tip in the "widows and orphans" tub. Fitzgerald and Voros made the decision to open for breakfast the morning after the auction to sell off the Outback's equipment and furnish- ings in late June. Braginton-Smith was the first person they met when they took over the Old Yarmouth Inn eight years ago, according to Fitzgerald. "We talked about doing breakfast many times, but we would never do it while he was there. We wouldn't step on his toes," she said. The Old Yarmouth Inn may become the replacement for Jack's Outback for many of the Outback's former patrons. Staff photo by Bill Barn" According to Voros, they made there final decision after going to Grumpy's in East Dennis for breakfast one morning and found the line to-, get in went out to the street. The same thing hap- J, pened when they moved on to Hallet's. "We real- ized there was definitely a void in our neighbor- hood," said Voros. "This is a big undertaking for us. Hiring Ginger and Anna made this possible. I was a lit- tle surprised the new owner didn't want to hire , them when they had such a good following," he, said. t, Voros and Fitzgerald said they have no plans,; to use the Outback's name because they can never recreate the atmosphere of the Outback. Although the menu and pricing is designed to , reflect the Outback's, people won't be filling out , their own order slips, gathering their own flat- ware, busing their own tables or paying on the honor system. Except for the open coffee urn, it will be strict- ly table service from a closed kitchen. Nunes and Grauer won't be doubling as waitresses either, but they will be encouraged to spend time on the floor with their old friends. Two other things the OYI owners don't intend to duplicate are the quirky spellings on the wall menu and the service that "stinks." "We hope to improve on the service," said Fitzgerald, "but we don't know what to expect. The word that we open Thursday has spread like wildfire. We don't know how many servers we need, so the service could be lousy the. first week." Grauer and Nunes stopped by the inn Tuesday to go over the menu with the owners and suggest a few changes. Both seem excited about the prospect of working there. "At Jack's I was the chief cook and bottle washer, the motherly type," said Nunes. "At Jack's we did everything. Here we're going to cook and go out to say "Hi" to.' everybody." The hours for breakfast at the inn are 7 to 11 a.m., Monday through Saturday, with Nunes and Grauer coming in at six to prepare the muffins, scones, cinnamon buns and soups for which Nunes is so highly regarded.