Business: Pancake Café
Address: 1292 Rickert Drive, Naperville
Phone/website: 630-637-1010; www.pancakecafenaperville.org
Owner: Frank Kuzniewicz, 59, of Naperville
Years in business: 32
What does your business do? “We’re a breakfast and lunch restaurant. Gourmet style. We are family-owned. My wife Sharon and our kids work here,” Kuzniewicz said.
When are you open? “We’re open from 7 to 3. … The only day we’re closed is Christmas. We are open New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Christmas Eve, all the holidays, Fourth of July, Labor Day. When people are off and have nothing to do, they go out to eat.”
Why did you open this restaurant? “I always worked at restaurants and loved it. My family owns one of the biggest produce companies in Chicago, Testa Produce. I worked for my family but wanted to get back in the restaurant business. When you work at a restaurant, you kind of have blinders on.”
What’s the history? “My great-grandfather Dominic Testa came from Sicily at 18 and couldn’t speak English. They pinned a button on him that said, ‘Apples and oranges 5 cents.’ He went door to door with a bushel. From that he got a horse and wagon. From that he got a truck. From that he owned the biggest produce company in Illinois.”
What was it like when Pancake Café opened? “You could see Route 59 from here. Rickert Drive was a dirt road. … There was a Pizza Hut on the corner, a dentist and me (in the strip mall).”
What should people know? “We do these corned beef and pastrami sandwiches. I love corned beef, I love Reubens, I love pastrami. It took me about a year to come up with a recipe. Now we go through almost 100 pounds of corned beef a week.”
What’s your secret to success? “Consistency. We don’t change anything. If it’s not right, it doesn’t get sold. … We haven’t changed recipes in 30 years. We add new things like avocado toast, but we’re never going to change what got us here.
“I tell my kids — they want to eventually take over — that the framework is here. It’s the quality and the quantity. … After COVID-19, I sat down with management and I said, ‘Look, we have to fight our way back. How do you want to do this?’ Prices were going through the roof. We had to raise prices, which I’m always against, or we had to cut some quality. They said, ‘Absolutely not. We’re not cutting quality.’ Which is what I wanted to hear.”
How many people work here? “Fifteen.”
When are you busiest? “Monday is the slowest day. Each day gets better. Weekends are our busy time.”
What about competition? “It keeps you on your game. I welcome competition. It keeps me doing new things, fresh things.”
How about the customers? “We have customers who’ve been coming here since we opened. We see them park their car, we start their meal. A handful are here seven days a week.
“We also do the hot lunches for four schools in the area. … Probably 500 to 600 kids a day. Any kid whose family has fallen on hard times? Free meals. No questions asked. … We send extra meals every day for kids who forget their lunches at home. … We have the entire Neuqua Valley (High School) football team here for dinner each Thursday night.”
What else do you do? “I help coach varsity football at Neuqua Valley. This year, I’m coaching the offensive line and tight ends. I’ve been coaching football in Naperville more than 30 years. I’ve coached at Neuqua for 10 years. … I played football in high school at New Trier. Linebacker.”
Where do you dine out? “I love downtown Naperville. Have an appetizer here, an appetizer there. We hop around. Have a cocktail. See where the wind blows us.”
Did you ever think of offering dinner? “We did. The first 15 years, we were open until 10 o’clock at night. Then it got to be too much. … This is better for me because now I have some time (for myself).”
Do you like your job? “Somedays I think, ‘What am I doing this for? Why don’t I walk away?’ But by the end of the day, I love my restaurant. I love what I do. I love the people here.”
What about all the Tiffany lamp shades? “Those are original. When we remodeled five years ago, we asked staff about the lights. They said, ‘Don’t change anything.’”
What’s your advice for someone starting a business? “Dedication. You have to love it. … I get up every morning and I love coming to my restaurant. It’s a new adventure every day.”
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. If you know of a business you’d like to see profiled in Down to Business, contact him at metschmsfl@yahoo.com.