Long Island Natives 'Coming Home' to Open New Restaurant

Two local best friends are "coming back home" to open up a new restaurant on Long Island.

Brian Burchill and Robert Maynard, who both grew up in Smithtown and Centereach, have been friends since grammar school.

In 2004, Burchill, who owned several restaurants in New York City, called up his old friend who was working in real estate at the time, and asked if he wanted to open up a restaurant together.

"I said 'absolutely not,'" Maynard said with a laugh.

However, after seeing how successful Burchill's other restaurants were, Maynard agreed, and the two of them opened up their first Famous Toastery restaurant in Huntersville, North Carolina.

"That's how it all started," Maynard said. "It was never meant to be this big, it was meant as just a simple breakfast spot."

In 2008, they opened their second restaurant and since then have turned it into a franchise and opened a total of 13 Famous Toastery locations across the country.

"We never expected it to get this big," he said. "This wasn't the plan."

They recently announced that they plan to open their first Long Island location at the Mayfair Shopping Center on Jericho Turnpike in Commack in early 2017.

"I know the area really well," Maynard said. "It makes the most sense to open up [in Commack]."

The two have received calls and messages from locals asking them to open up a restaurant in the area, according to Maynard. He said Long Islanders are looking for a restaurant like theirs.

"Diners are dying," he said. "Our restaurant is the complete opposite of a diner, we make everything fresh."

In addition, within the next 10 years, there are plans to open 12 more restaurants across Suffolk County and then expand into Nassau County.

"It's two local guys coming back home to Long Island," Maynard said. "We can't wait to bring it there. We both know we wanted to be there, and the stars all lined up on Long Island."

The best part about owning a restaurant is serving people, Maynard said. He says their model is different from others because everything is fresh to order. In addition, they use a team-based service called "every server is your server," where all the servers work together to serve the meals.

The concept of the restaurant is "fast food" that is fresh. While the food takes about three to six minutes to serve to the customer, like in a fast-food restaurant, the restaurant goes the extra mile to bring local and fresh flavors and ingredients.

Every restaurant has a different popular dish, but the quinoa salad and the meatloaf omelet seem to be the fan favorites.

According to Maynard, the Commack restaurant will follow the same concept and have the same menu, but they will possibly include a local flavor, possibly something related to Maynard and Burchill's fathers, who worked as a New York City firefighter and policeman, respectively.

They will also be opening up additional restaurants across the country in North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., New Jersey and more.