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Date: 8/3/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – Dianne and Bruce Perron smiled at each other as they recalled the pride they felt about all the accomplishments their “kids,” a term of endearment for their staff, had achieved.
The Perrons first began serving the community in the restaurant business and employing locals in 1988 when they began The Egg and I. However, a couple decades and some children later, they decided to sell the restaurant and take what Dianne described as “a seven-year hiatus.” So “about 10 years ago,” they sold the Egg and I to David Simard, who moved the restaurant out of South Hadley Falls and into a former Friendly’s building on Newton Street.
It was after their hiatus they returned to the South Hadley Falls area and purchased the Talk of the Town restaurant on 26 Main St. “We love the Falls, the building was empty,” Dianne said. Since their opening, they expanded the restaurant into the location next door after the business that was located there left.
“We didn’t want to see the first floor empty, we reopened the restaurant as Talk of the Town so there was no confusion,” Bruce said.
“I love the location, since 1988 we’ve been here and we’ve seen it grow. We expanded it once, that decision was a very good decision,” she said.
The Perrons said the restaurant staff and customers had become more than just employees, but had turned into a family for them. While speaking with Reminder Publishing, she pointed out each employee, explaining their accomplishments, jobs and course of study in school, like a proud parent. She recalled an instant when she and Bruce had been at an aquarium with their grandchildren when they were approached by two people who had met at their restaurant and were now married with children.
Now, after decades of employing town residents and even their own children, their grandson is working for them. “Our past employees, we’re friends with them on Facebook. Who would have thought in 1988 when we opened, we would have an opportunity to have our 14-year-old grandson working for us? I remember his father at that age,” she said. “It’s a business, it’s a job, but it’s so much more than that for us. It’s everything to us. We love to see the kids, they’re ambitious. We’ve never had to advertise for help.”
“It’s fun to see the interaction with everyone, it’s multi-level. We’ve seen them at baby bumps, now we’re hiring them,” Bruce added, laughing. “We keep track of some of our older employees, we’ve got doctors, lawyers, truck drivers."
She added the employees tend to take on their giving and positive attitude. “They give back too, it’s great to see they mirror us and they’re family,” she said. Bruce recalled a recent instance they volunteered for a golf tournament which they were both on the committee for. He said members of their staff worked all morning, cleaned the restaurant and then spent their afternoon and evening volunteering at the tournament.
Dianne said it wasn’t just their employees that were family though, it was their customers too. She recalled several instances where she and Bruce had become concerned when regular customers didn’t show up for their typical breakfast meal. She laughed at the time when they’d become so concerned about a customer that hadn’t shown up they’d called the police to do a welfare check, only to find out they’d been visiting relatives out of state and a fellow customer hadn’t relayed the message.
“We’ve had instances where Dianne recognized people were not here and found people ill,” Bruce explained.
Dianne recalled her own father, who had been a diligent customer until he passed away. She said customers and staff were so much like a family that they had been there to support her and her family at his funeral. “My father was a customer here, he was here every morning at 8:30. His name was Pops. When he passed away, half of this restaurant was at his service,” she said. “It’s not a way to make a living, it is our living, it is our life and it’s been good to us and people have been good to us. People have been very, very good to us and caring.”
Dianne said when the pandemic began they closed their doors completely, and due to the sudden nature of the closure were forced to give away a lot of their food. “A lot of people were coming down taking dozens of eggs to people that needed them. Paper products you could put in dry storage, but food we ended up giving away a lot. We wanted to make sure it went to people that needed it, we couldn’t even give it to the soup kitchen, they were shut down too,” she said. “We ended up reaching out to the community and said if you know of anyone who needs it. People came down and took 12 to 13 dozen eggs and delivered it to those who needed it.”
Dianne said she felt for those in the hospitality industry, as they were hit hard by the pandemic. “My heart goes out to them, especially people that started a business within a year or two years before the pandemic. A lot of them did not survive and their dreams were crushed, it was very sad,” she said. Dianne added that it was difficult to watch members of their staff have to miss out on milestones and traditions.
“I saw my girls who couldn’t have a graduation, who couldn’t have prom. It was heartbreaking for us to watch our kids, our staff go through this. It was very hard emotionally and to see them struggle and not know if they could go into their college year,” she said. “We saw so much, I felt bad for families that had to work yet had their family at home. It was a hard year on the community and on families. That was the hardest thing, it put everything else in perspective when the business wasn’t making money. It gave us a little reality check that we’re okay.”
While they’re still not open to 100 percent capacity and have had to cut back some menu offerings, Bruce said they work hard to provide for customers. “The mix and match works, but if someone came in and wanted something special we’d get it. We cater to the customers, they’re family. They’re a second family,” he said. Dianne added that should they open to 100 percent capacity, it would minimize their ability to interact and serve customers to the best of their ability.
“We want to be able to socialize with guests and not be so busy. We want to be able give them the best service,” she said. If we were open 100 percent, because of our age, we would not have that communication with our customers and not enjoy our customers.”
Now in their seventies, the Perrons were ready to sell the business and slow down. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed their plans and made the restaurant what Dianne called “an expensive hobby.” She said prior to the pandemic, they had made the decision to sell the restaurant and even had a buyer lined up.
“We had it sold before the pandemic. Our last day was supposed to be Easter Sunday,” she said. However, she called it a “blessing” as the buyer “was young with family.”
“It was basically a blessing for him, we called it an expensive hobby. We didn’t have a young family.” She said, “We want whoever comes in here to prosper and have a good experience like we have had.”
When the restaurant does sell, the Perrons said they still plan to be active in the community, and added that they planned to spend more time at the cabin Bruce built in New Hampshire. “He built a log cabin. On our days off we’re up in New Hampshire, so we’ll go to our second home.”
Bruce said there was plenty to do at their cabin, but they’d be back to visit the restaurant every once in a while. “There’s lots of things to do, fishing, hunting, coffee in the morning, but we’ll have to come down and check on it,” he said.
She said if they kept the restaurant, they’d “never stop,” and she felt the desire to give back more than they already were. “You have to give back, life’s been so good to us,” she said. “I like the socializing, but it’s the paperwork that’s getting old.”
Dianne added that she felt grateful, not just for the family that had grown from the restaurant, but the experiences she’d been able to be involved with as a result of the restaurant. “It gives us an opportunity to work with the community and support the community,” she said, adding that she became connected with one of her favorite causes, a local charity benefitting families with sick children – Luke Stronger – from a conversation with a customer. “If we were in any other business we wouldn’t have had all these opportunities to know about all the stuff going on.”