Sandra and Roy Milling are the new owners of Joey's Pancake House in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.
A banner hanging on the wall inside Joey’s Pancake House in Maggie Valley marks a span of half a century - 1966 to 2016 - but it shouldn’t be considered bookends of a start and of an end.
The venerable restaurant is under new ownership and will be open once again before the end of May.
The new owners, Roy and Sandra Milling, have bought the building and name from Brenda O’Keefe, who shut the popular breakfast establishment last summer after keeping the syrup flowing since the restaurant’s namesake, her husband, Joey, died in 2001.
“It’s amazing how she ran the restaurant, serving everyone and keeping it in such great shape,” Roy said. “To fill her footsteps” is an honor, he and Sandra said.
“She had thought when she closed that was an end of Joey’s time,” he said.
But a friendship between O’Keefe and the Millings blossomed into the opportunity for the Lexington, Kentucky, couple to buy the long-loved Maggie Valley restaurant as well as the name known to travelers far and wide.
“It’s an honor to continue the legacy from here on out,” Sandra said. “We will offer the same quality food; the same good service.”
Roy and Sandra said they’ve worked in food service “our whole lives,” starting out at a steak house in Florida before buying their own restaurant.
They own Tolly-Ho Restaurant, “a 24-hour burger-and-breakfast spot” in Lexington that is popular with downtown diners and students from the nearby University of Kentucky.
“We have the same philosophy in the way we do business,” when compared to O’Keefe, Roy said while seated at one of Joey’s classic booths. “We’re like family.”
Roy said he and Sandra are hiring between 35 and 40 people for the reincarnated Joey’s, and the pancake house will be open from 7 a.m. - noon every day except Thursday.
Roy said they are considering staying open a bit longer on weekends to help satisfy the crowds that traditionally have turned out in Maggie Valley.
And while pancakes and breakfast are a departure from the burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs and sides popular in Lexington, Roy and Sandra recognize the appeal.
“It’s not just the pancakes. It could be the syrup” that makes pancakes such a popular restaurant item, he said.
“It could be the memory,” Sandra added, “the memory of eating with grandma and grandpa. It’s the feeling. It’s the comfort.”
Joey’s is located at 4309 Soco Road in Maggie Valley, and Roy said it will re-open by Memorial Day.