Breakfast Spot Fights Closure Rumor

Five years ago, Patricia Stimpson and her husband, Robert, had finally paid off their mortgage. They had been “working stiffs” their entire lives, she said, and being free of the monthly mortgage payment made them think about opening their own little breakfast place.

“He was a cook for 30 years before we bought this. We turned to each other and said, 'What do you think? Should we go after the dream?'” Patricia said.

Today, Patricia and her son, Daniel, are trying to keep the family business, on Dyer Avenue, afloat.

Shortly after closing time on a recent Wednesday, Mrs. Stimpson sat at a back table sipping a cup of tea. Daniel finished cleaning up the kitchen. On the wall hung a framed picture of Robert next to the words “Until we meet again Pop.”

“It’s been tough,” she said. “He got sick in June and was gone by August.”

Robert died from cancer in August 2009. Before he got sick, the business was going well. He ran the kitchen; she took care of the front. They had taken a big gamble and it seemed like it might pay off.

“So my son and I are trying to keep things afloat and survive. It’s not easy. Not in this economy. It’s horrible,” Pat said.

Making matters worse recently was rumor that the business was on the verge of closing, Mrs. Stimpson said. One of their vendors made the mistake of telling someone that the restaurant was in dire straights and might have to close.

“You’re never supposed to do that in this business," she said. "You’re always supposed to be upbeat, put a smile on your face every day. We try. We do our best.”

It hasn’t been easy. Nestled in the heart of a manufacturing and industrial part of the city, Pop’s Place isn’t on a main drag. And area businesses, including the Cranston Print Works and other companies, have downsized or closed. That means there’s less commuter traffic, and fewer workers stopping in for breakfast before work or during lunch breaks.

“We need people to come and recognize we’re here because we’re in a venue that isn’t very attractive," Pat said. "We’re not on a main strip. We’re not like T’s on Park Avenue — that’s a beautiful establishment and they worked hard to get where they are today.”

It’s not as if Pop’s Place doesn’t have a lot going for it. The store is clean, pleasant and it’s easy to imagine it bustling and full of life. The prices are among the lowest in the area, notably the daily two eggs, homefries toast and coffee special that comes to $2.86 — and that includes taxes.

“Where the heck can you go for a breakfast priced like that?” Mrs. Stimpson said. “Put the rest of your money in the gas tank. Give me my $2.86 and you can be on your merry way.”

Pat finds herself at the helm of her and her husband’s shared dream without her husband. She still hasn’t mastered his homefries, despite her repeated efforts. Her son, who left high school at 17 to work the kitchen, sometimes doesn’t have his heart in it. Understandable for a boy still coming to terms with life without his father.

“Unfortunately for financial reasons, he is the cook,” she said. “He was in the alternative education program and it wasn’t going well for him anyway.”

But he still does a good job, Pat said. Just that morning he was putting out banana stuffed French toast garnished with bananas, cream and a chocolate drizzle.

“It looked so good I wanted to take a picture of it,” she said proudly. “He likes what he’s doing back there.”

The problem is the family needs to do more business to continue paying the bills and regain a foothold. It’s frankly up to the residents of Cranston to determine whether Pop’s Place will survive.

“It’s nice to have your Dunkin’ Donuts, your Burger King and McDonalds, but it’s places like Pop’s Place that keep families going out together,” she said.

When Robert got sick, it was a blindside.

“He just got up one morning and said ‘I can’t do it anymore. You and Daniel will have to take over,’” Pat said.

It was especially hard because Robert was a take charge kind of guy and liked to do things his way, she said. She would come in to do odds and ends, but he had the place under control. When you set out to follow your dreams, it’s not easy to plan for the last thing you’d ever expect to happen.

“He didn’t want me in the kitchen,” she said. “We never planned for what happened. How do you plan for that?”