THE BREAKFAST ROOM HISTORY
Debbie Klimshuk has owned the breakfast room for 14 years but her commitment to the restaurant and love for serving patrons top-notch breakfast runs much deeper than that. Debbie started like many teenagers who grow up on cape cod. Working for a local small business trying to earn some extra cash while learning about responsibility. That small business was the same old restaurant Cape Codders and tourists know and love today: The Breakfast Room. After a few summers of working Debbie realized that she had found more than a summer job, she had found a home.
Fast forward 24 Years Debbie Purchased the restaurant from former owner Walt McGourty. Even though she now is the owner of the restaurant, her commitment and love for the service industry has never dimmed. On any ordinary day of the year on Cape Cod you can find Debbie at The Breakfast Room either waitressing, greeting and seating tables of patrons, or even behind the grill whipping up some delicious entrees.
Blast from the Past -
Enjoy this article from 2009 when Debbie first took over at The Breakfast Room.
New owner is a Familiar Face: Popular Restaurant Changes Hands
by Nicole Muller
Patience is a virture.
Practice makes perfect.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Debbie Klimshuk is living proof that these adages are worth observing.
Klimshuk started working at The Breakfast Room in West Dennis in 1984. Last week, after 24 years of serving up eggs, toast coffee and morning cheer, Klimshuk bought the whole kit and kaboodle for $650,000.
At 7 the next morning, Klimshuk slipped into her signature green apron and was back to work in the homey restaurant, pouring gallons of coffee and serving the day’s specials – Mexican omelet and cranberry-nut pancakes – as if nothing changed.
Nothing has. Why change a good thing?
“I’m fortunate,” Klimshuk said. “All the people who have worked with me are staying even the dishwasher who has been here 20 years. I ran the place for [previous owner] Walter McGourty when he wintered in Arizona, so we’re already a team.”
Cook and kitchen manager Larry Flatts has been flipping pancakes at The Breakfast Room for 15 years. Flatts’ philosophy is simple: give people their money’s worth, provide a variety of choices and they’ll keep coming back.”
Drawing the inspiration from local produce as well as The Food Network and online recipe sites, Flatts changes the blackboard specials frequently. “I make a killer merryberry pancake with cranberries and blueberries – and children love my Mickey Mouse pancakes,” Flatts said. “I keep our menu fresh and interesting while continuing to offer people’s old favorites.”
Anyone who’s enjoyed a Breakfast Room meal in the past 16 years knows Louise Devaney, Klimshuk’s “right-hand lady” and cashier. “I’ve known Debbie since she was in school with my children,” Debaney said. “Her owning the business is fantastic. She knows this place inside and out.”
That’s because Klimshuk started making toast there at age 14 for original owners Martha and Roger Payea. In 1971, the Payeas converted a cottage on the site into a coffee shop for patrons of their adjacent motel. By the time Walter and Eleanor McGourty bought the place in 1987, it had become a full restaurant. McGourty maintained the Payea’s staff, including Klimshuk, who climbed the ladder in the business.
As mid-morning approached, Klimshuk moved between the kitchen, dining room and lobby, where she greeted newcomers by name, bade farewell to a young family and cheerfully handed a steaming package to a gentleman before he had both feet through the door.
“It’s for a family that joins us regularly,” Klimshuk explained. “They called to say their daughter isn’t feeling well, so they ordered take-out – chocolate chip pancakes for the children and egg specials for the parents. We take good care of our customers.”
“When Walter approached us to buy this place, my husband said it was a solid business worth believing in, that I was worth believing in. I know Martha and Roger, who both died over the past three years, are looking down on me and saying, ‘This is what we always wanted.’”