Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 7/11/2022
BELCHERTOWN – After months of speculation and questions online, Krispy’s finally opened its doors in Belchertown with a soft launch on July 5 at the former site of Almeida’s Country Café.
Phyllis Gertsios, who is helping her son Yianni with the business, said her mother Anna Voyiatzis opened the restaurant for her grandson.
“I just happen to fall in the middle,” she said. “He’s passionate about the food industry, he’s always wanted to own a restaurant or at least be in business for himself, so his grandmother helped make that happen.”
In terms of the menu people can expect chicken, hamburgers seafood, ice cream and more.
“We wanted to have a family-type quick serve restaurant with a drive through that also offers ice cream,” she said.
Along with delays in the shipment of paper products because of COVID-19 supply chain problems, Gertsios said the restaurant also faced challenges when determining what type of food would be available.
“It took us a while to select the premium types of products, so that’s what took us a while, we were taste testing a lot of food during the initial build out to make sure what we wanted to serve was going to be available and that was a challenge,” she said.
Despite the challenge, Gertsios added she is happy with how the menu turned out.
“For the most part we’re very pleased with the outcome of the available menu that we are able to offer. The menu will evolve as the weeks, months and seasons go by along with our flavors of ice cream,” she said.
So far Gertsios said the community has welcomed Krispy’s with open arms.
“Positive reviews, excitement from Belchertown and surrounding areas. They’ve offered praise and our staff members being trained in such a small amount of time are doing an excellent job, it’s due to their love for what we’re doing, they’re awesome with the customers so we’re really happy with that,” she said.
Gertsios added that Voyiatzis has owned restaurants in several states.
“She’s owned 13 of them through Massachusetts, South Carolina and North Carolina. She’s southern based and in her retirement because I moved up here, she moved up here as well. When my son said he wanted to become an entrepreneur like his grandparents, this is what we decided to do,” she said.
Gertsios said her mother has owned a variety of restaurants from Greek restaurants, Italian restaurants and pizza places.
By adding a drive through window, Gertsios said she is hoping to future proof the restaurant in case sit down dining becomes less common.
“After COVID [-19], I realized that sit down restaurants are going to one day probably be a thing of the past because people are always on the go. It got us thinking instead of doing a sit-down restaurant we should probably have something that is quick serve and has a drive through to help continuously offer our food to the public,” she said.
Gertsios added that she hopes Krispy’s can provide a spin on classic American dining.
“We wanted to bring a different spin on your classic cheeseburger, kind of like a freshness to the nostalgia of your typical burger or your typical chicken sandwich and in a timely fashion,” she said.
Krispy’s is located at 146 State St. and is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday and the plan is to keep it open year-round.