All-day breakfast, locally sourced food, craft beers and live music: these will be among the varied offerings at the Hanover location of The Skinny Pancake, which holds its grand opening today. The fast casual dining establishment specializes in crêpes and can be found in the Hanover Park Building on Lebanon Street.
In celebration of the grand opening, The Skinny Pancake will host two live performers this weekend — Brett Hughes from Burlington on Friday and Christopher Paul Stellingon Saturday.
Co-owner Benjy Adler described the restaurant as a “mission-driven business” that is aggressive about serving affordable and locally sourced food.
The space will also have some of the longest hours in the Upper Valley — 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 8 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday. General house manager Keith Troy Walsh said that the restaurant expects to have about 50 employees because of the long hours.
The menu features a variety of crêpes — including lunch, dinner and dessert options. Adler said that burgers, paninis and “group munchies” like nachos, spinach artichoke dip and French fries will also be served. The Skinny Pancake, which has a price point of about $10 for most items, is committed to keeping its food affordable, he said.
“We’re trying to keep local food affordable and thus accessible,” Adler said. “We talk about it being everyday eats, not a special treat.”
To craft beer afficionados, The Skinny Pancake will be a welcome addition to Hanover. Adler said the team is working on a “really deep” local sourcing of craft beer, with 22 taps at the bar.
Located in the same complex as restaurants like The Orient, Subway and Base Camp Cafe, The Skinny Pancake moved into its current space after the owners of Essentials for Men and The Chocolate Shop retired.
Hanover was an ideal place to open The Skinny Pancake’s next location because it is a combined “college-hospital town,” Adler said, and more people suggested Hanover as a location than any other place. The Upper Valley is also a fertile agricultural area, which plays into the restaurant’s mission of serving local food, he added.
Walsh said that by using ingredients from local producers, The Skinny Pancake can support the community beyond its customers.
The business currently spends $1,000,000 in food annually and will add another $400,000 with the Hanover location.
In addition to its food offerings, The Skinny Pancake will also aim to have live music performances between two and five days a week.
Adler, who was a music major in college, said the restaurant will have a proper set up that makes the space an attractive venue and for musicians. He also said that Hanover could benefit from a venue where the musical genre of choice gravitates toward folk, bluegrass and Americana.
The Skinny Pancake also plans to hold community events like storytelling sessions and fundraising for local nonprofits.
“We want this to be a space that can be activated for special events in a casual atmosphere,” Adler said.
Several students expressed excitement at The Skinny Pancake’s grand opening. The restaurant’s Facebook event, which advertises its opening celebration, has 244 people responding “going” as of press time. The Skinny Pancake also promoted itself at a King Arthur Flour event in Norwich last week.
Sai Mupparaju ’18 and Alexandra Fricke ’18 both said that they are excited for The Skinny Pancake’s Hanover opening after seeing it at the Norwich event.
Alex Brown ’19 said that he looks forward to having another venue for musical performances on campus.
Working alongside his brother Jonny, Adler has opened several locations of The Skinny Pancake. Their food service experience started out in 2003 when they opened a food cart on Church Street in Burlington.
Adler said that they started the food cart with no “plans or ambitions,” and that it was just going to be a summer job. After some more friends joined the endeavor, however, he said he began thinking of expansion.
“We started having these crêpe dreams and visions of a distant future with a restaurant with a kitchen and a stage and live music,” he said.
After working at the food cart, the team bought a school bus, converted it to run on vegetable oil and took it to festivals and fairs. Soon after, when the volume level became too loud for a bus, Adler and his team started looking into rental apartments to use as a commercial kitchen, which eventually led to them looking at restaurants.
The Skinny Pancake chain currently has other locations on the Burlington waterfront, Montpelier, the Burlington International Airport, the Sugarbush ski resort and the University of Vermont.
Their location at the Burlington International Airport makes them the most locally sourced airport eatery in the country, Adler said.
The Skinny Pancake opened earlier this week for breakfast and lunch, but will begin its full regular hours following today’s grand opening.
