Village Inn Pancake House flips over its 40th

The South Glenstone Village Inn sign says it all.

Forty years ago, Jack and Jane Greene opened their first Village Inn Pancake House at 2036 S. Glenstone Ave. It’s become the thriving centerpiece of the Greenes’ three Village Inn restaurants – now run by their sons, Bob and Bill Greene.

The Greene brothers have been serving breakfast and other meals to Springfield area diners since their early teens. As owners, the Greenes run the business with jovial attitudes.

And why not? They built sales to $5 million last year from their four area restaurants (they have since closed one).

The family-owned business – the brothers share ownership 50/50 – has come a long way since struggling to break even during its first three years.

Making ends meet

The year was 1965. Jack and Jane Greene invested in a franchise venture called Village Inn, opening an eatery Aug. 12.

Year 1 was a flop, grossing only $160,000 against a break-even of $250,000. The restaurant was supposed to record sales in the upper $300,000s. The next year was not much better, as the Greene brothers recall.

“(Dad) didn’t cash a whole lot of paychecks the first year or two,” said Bill Greene, who was 10 when his parents started the business. “We got kind of used to tuna casserole.”

But operations turned the corner in Year 3, establishing a faithful clientele that still exists today.

The Greene brothers both got their starts at an early age – Bob Greene at age 16 when his parents bought into the Denver franchise and the younger Bill Greene when he turned 14.

The Greene’s store was the 16th in the franchise; now there are 230 nationally.

By 1976, the brothers knew all there was about the business and decided to buy in.

“We had worked at the company all our lives. It was a natural progression of things for us to take over,” said Bill Greene.

“It was what was expected of us, also,” Bob Greene added.

Two years later, Jack Greene stopped working in the restaurant, and the sons began transitioning to full ownership in the early 1980s. Their dad fully retired in 1987, after Jane Greene died. Jack Greene passed away in January 2004.

At that time, there were two locations, the one on South Glenstone and another on the north end of the street that they opened in the late 1970s. The second restaurant opened after their wives got involved in the business.

“We decided we needed to have another store – we had too many Greenes in one spot,” Bob Greene said, laughing.

Conservative growth was the real reason, a business model the brothers have maintained through the years. The brothers opened a third Village Inn in 1991 and a fourth in 1998. They closed the north Glenstone location in May, leaving a south Springfield restaurant and one in Ozark to complement the original at 2036 S. Glenstone.

The Villagers

The original location is home to some well-known regulars.

There are real estate veterans Bill Beall and Ross Slavens. TV newsmen Ned Reynolds and Tom Trtan. And publisher Robert Glazier and Charlie Banta of Banta Foods.

But then there are the everyday patrons, for which the Village Inn staff has developed nicknames.

A semi-retired painter known to the staff as “Cowboy” has eaten there twice a day for 20 years. Another customer, June Overall, “the matriarch saint of Village Inn” since Jane passed away, comes in at least daily, said Betty Bryant, the restaurant’s associate manager. “She’s seen Bob and Bill grow up,” Bryant said. “If the doors are open (Cowboy and Overall) are here.

“And they’re not doing too bad health-wise, so that must mean we’re feeding them pretty good.”

The Greenes call these regulars part of the restaurant family.

“We’ve had customers coming in there (for) so long, they are a very integral part of our family. That’s our restaurant family,” Bob Greene said.

Some staff members have become so attached to customers that they’ve even attended a few of their funerals.

Bill Greene jokingly says attrition is the only thing that takes customers away. But after 40 years serving customers, “You see a bunch of them come and go, you do.”

Employee longevity also is a key cog in operations, Greene said. Several staff members have been there more than a decade and a manager and bookkeeper at the North Glenstone restaurant were both there 20 years. Jeanie Martin, who works at the South Campbell restaurant is the most veteran of employees, with 25 years under her belt.

Eight-year employee Bryant attributes the employee records to the owners.

“It’s a family place. The owners make sure of it,” she said.

The brothers have agreed to stay in business together “till death does Bob part,” Bill Greene joked.