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Date: 11/6/2019
WILBRAHAM – “I’m not a particularly smart man,” Geoff Whittier said in an interview with Reminder Publishing, “but I know you don’t change what works.” That’s why Whittier hasn’t touched the recipe for success that is Wilbraham Seafood.
Whittier took over the restaurant on April 9 and since then has been using the ingredients from the same sources and cooking everything the same way as the previous owners. Whittier says business has been good since he took the reins.
“I’ve been looking to do my own thing for a while,” Whittier said of wanting to be his own boss. He said he wasn’t necessarily looking to run a restaurant, but he didn’t shy away from it either. He said the restaurant was a fixture of Wilbraham and when the opportunity to buy it popped up, he took it.
Whittier has worked in restaurants but mostly as a bartender, he said.
He has four part-time employees and one full-time employee, Melissa St. Martin. Whittier said St. Martin has been working at Wilbraham Seafood for between 12 and 13 years, and he has relied on her knowledge and experience.
“I expected to put the time in,” Whittier said of owning his own business, but “there are a lot of little things that pop up.”
“Long-range, I’m going to need to get my customer base younger. The age of our average customers is 60,” Whittier said. “I talked to a guy last night that has been coming here since 1989.”
Still, he doesn’t plan to make changes any time soon.
“They did it for 30 years,” Whittier said of the previous owners. “I hope to do it for 20.”