DANBURY — A family-owned restaurant that obtained its start out offering two sizzling dogs and a cup of espresso for 25 cents and turned a person of the city’s famous eateries is for sale so the owners can “enjoy everyday living a tiny.”
“In this business, you have to set 100 p.c into it and we normally place 100 per cent into it,” explained Peter Koukos, whose grandfather and grand uncle started off JK’s Initial Texas Warm Weiners on White Street in 1924. “We are not retiring simply because we are burned out — the business is going strong, but it’s time to appreciate daily life a little.”
Koukos, 62, is referring to a relatives-operate enterprise which survived the Great Melancholy, World War II, the flood of 1955 and the coronavirus pandemic by serving quintessential household fare at honest rates. The menu at JK’s restaurant, which has been on South Road for 48 many years, functions cheeseburgers, club sandwiches and grinders — all for under $12.
“The pandemic didn’t have an impact on us at all,” claimed Koukos shortly ahead of the lunch rush on Tuesday, referring to the COVID-19 epidemic that shut down scores of places to eat throughout Connecticut and the country all through its two-calendar year scourge. “We just transformed the way we did company.”
Koukos and his older brother George hope the new proprietors choose up where the spouse and children tradition has left off — preferring excellent in excess of every thing else.
A genuine estate listing for the restaurant claims as substantially.
“Many companies, especially in the course of pandemic occasions, did not make it this specific business thrived throughout the shut down and nevertheless continues to increase and could grow to even more,” mentioned a listing by Coldwell Banker Realty. “The hrs, menu, catering, off web page special occasions, in home specific functions, takeout, delivery, foodstuff truck, and quite a few extra strategies could improve this enterprise and even grow to be a franchise.”
To acquire in excess of the business enterprise and the cafe at 126 South St. will expense you $2.2 million, according to the listing.
“For just about 100 several years, this location has been a brand and a staple in city, and you could be the a single to capitalize off of its legacy and make it your possess,” the listing reads. “The family members who owns this would enjoy nothing much more than (to have) able and keen people to move off the decades of perseverance … with the very same aspiration.”
Kouskos claimed he has been telling buyers who have read the information that the household has each and every intention of offering to a new proprietor with identical values.
“They say, ‘Oh no, you just cannot do that,’ and I say ‘JK’s will be the similar,’” Koukos explained. “That is our intention. The new proprietors will do that if they are good. There is no explanation to reinvent the wheel.”
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