Famous Toastery: The Antithesis of a Greasy Spoon

When you hear the words “greasy spoon,” what comes to mind? A ramshackle diner with faded vinyl booths and exasperated waitresses? The term may be a warm colloquialism, but it conjures up images of restaurants that have seen better days (and fried food that barely passes muster).

“Diners like that are great at three o’clock in the morning after the bars close and you need something to fill you up,” Robert Maynard, co-founder and chief executive of Famous Toastery, said with a laugh. “But that’s not us.”

In order to figure out what Famous Toastery was, Maynard and his business partner Brian Burchill first determined what it wasn’t. First and foremost, the duo realized it wasn’t a standard diner.

“A lot of people try to say they’re ‘better breakfast,’ but they cheat,” Maynard said. “I mean, a McDonald’s hamburger was fresh at some point, but that doesn’t mean they can say they’re ‘better burger.’”

Just like the “better burger” segment is defined by high-quality ingredients and superior taste, Famous Toastery differentiates itself with premium offerings. The excitement is palpable in Maynard’s voice when he describes how each dish is prepared using first-rate ingredients.

“We buy the best bacon money can buy, we fly in lobster from fishermen in Maine,” he said. “It really sets us apart.”

Freshness is also key, with all meals being prepared fresh to order. However, Maynard and his team also focus on being the opposite of the “greasy” part of greasy spoons.

“One of the things that we do, when we bus each table, every single item on there is wiped off clean,” he said. “You never have a greasy anything – we don’t do that at the end of a shift, we do it every time someone gets up.”

But it’s not just the fact that Famous Toastery takes cleanliness seriously that makes it popular, it’s how its employees clean.

“We had entertainment backgrounds, Brian and I, and we brought that to the restaurant,” Maynard said. “Bussing a table is a show at our places. It looks and sounds a certain way and it becomes part of the theater of the place, part of the service. It’s part of the show that is Famous Toastery.”

It’s a show people keep coming back to see again and again, proving the world was more than ready for a true better breakfast concept. The challenge now is accommodating an ever-expanding audience, but it’s a struggle Maynard and the Famous Toastery team are happy to contend with.