First Watch To Open Breakfast Spot At Doylestown's Barn Plaza

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The breakfast and brunch chain, First Watch, is coming to Doylestown's Barn Plaza.

According to the shopping center's website, the new restaurant will open its first Bucks County location at a 5,000-square-foot pad site located in the parking lot of the Route 611 (Easton Road) shopping center in Doylestown Township.

The site had previously been occupied by an Applebee's Restaurant, which closed its doors in 2023.

Based in Florida, First Watch is a daytime dining concept that serves made-to-order breakfast, brunch, and lunch using fresh ingredients.

According to its website, its "chef-driven menu" includes elevated executions of classic favorites along with specialties such as the Quinoa Power Bowl, Farm Stand Breakfast Tacos, Avocado Toast, Chickichanga, Morning Meditation, Spiked Lavender Lemonade, and its signature Million Dollar Bacon.

First Watch operates more than 520 restaurants in 29 states and has nearby locations in Montgomeryville, Abington, and Huntingdon Valley. It is majority-owned by Advent International L.P., a private equity firm.

This shows the future location of the First Watch restaurant. Urgent Care is shown at right.

First Watch The Latest To Join The Barn

First Watch is the latest to sign a lease at the shopping center where a new Whole Foods Store and Barnes & Noble Booksellers are under construction.

The center recently signed a lease with the Philadelphia-based honeygrow eatery, which will open next to Piccolo Trattoria this summer. Honeygrow specializes in "craveable and customizable stir-frys, salads, and honeybars."

Here's just a taste of the First Watch menu:

• Brooklyn Breakfast Sandwich: Inspired by a New York deli classic - shaved pastrami, Gruyere cheese and house-roasted onions with an over-easy cage-free egg, house-pickled red onions, arugula, mayo, and Dijon mustard on a griddled everything-seasoned brioche bun. Served with lemon-dressed organic mixed greens.
• Barbacoa Chilaquiles Breakfast Bowl: Seasoned braised beef barbacoa tossed with Cheddar and Monterey Jack, salsa roja and crispy corn tortilla chips then topped with fresh avocado, lime crema, Cotija cheese and scallions. Served with cheesy scrambled cage-free eggs and seasoned black beans with housemade pico de gallo.
• Blackberry Lemon Cream French Toast: Thick-cut, custard-dipped challah bread griddled and topped with lemon cream, fresh blackberries, mixed berry compote, creme anglaise and spiced gingerbread cookie crumbles. Lightly dusted with powdered cinnamon sugar.
• Mango Passion Palmer: Mango, passion fruit, organic ginger and green tea.
• Holey Donuts: Cinnamon sugar-dusted cake donut holes with chocolate sauce and warm mixed berry compote for dipping.
• Million Dollar Bacon: Four slices of First Watch's signature hardwood smoked bacon baked with brown sugar, black pepper, cayenne and a maple syrup drizzle
• Classic Benedict: Two poached cage-free eggs atop toasted ciabatta piled high with smoked ham and vine-ripened tomato and covered with hollandaise. Served with lemon-dressed organic mixed greens.

More about First Watch

First Watch was co-founded by Ken Pendery who passed away on March 4, 2024, after a battle with Multiple System Atrophy, a rare neurological disorder. He was 70.

Pendery retired from the company’s board of directors in 2022 after 38 years with First Watch. During his extensive and influential tenure, he and co-founder John Sullivan moved the company’s operations from California to the Gulf Coast of Florida in the mid-1980s.

Pendery assumed the role of CEO in the late 90s. During his time at the helm, First Watch grew from about 50 restaurants in 1998 to more than 330 in 2018, when he transitioned from CEO to executive chairman.

After working together for 12 years, successor and current CEO and President Chris Tomasso continued the expansion to more than 450 restaurants by the time Pendery stepped down from the board of directors four years later. Today, First Watch operates more than 520 restaurants in 29 states.

“Ken’s impact and influence is – and will forever be – felt throughout our organization,” said Tomasso. “He was a mentor and dear friend, and the epitome of the ‘You First’ culture our company is built upon. Everyone who crossed his path is better for it.”

Today, Pendery’s legacy lives on through First Watch’s “5 Steps of Service,” first written on the back of a napkin in 1987, and his 10 Commandments (now “Commitments”). Beginning with “Welcome with warmth” and ending with “Act with infectious positivity,” the tenets are iactively trained and practiced in each restaurant.