Roger Pletcher opened the doors to his third restaurant last week, and so far, business is off to a good start.
“I’m just grateful for the community,” Pletcher said, sitting at a table inside Milford’s newest business addition, the Little Engine House Café.
The café is located at 604 First Street between the post office and Milford Pharmacy, where the former Subway restaurant used to be.
The café is modeled after the Engine House Café in Lincoln, Pletcher’s main business.
“This one is ‘little.’ It’s a smaller venue, smaller menu,” Pletcher said.
The Lincoln location is housed in the old Havelock fire station, built in 1902. The station closed in the 1970s, but its memory lives on in the restaurant’s décor.
“It looks almost like a firehouse museum,” Pletcher said, with old photos of fire brigades, American flags, firefighting equipment and uniforms hung in shadow boxes on the walls.
The Little Engine House offers the same feel, though Pletcher said he’s still looking for more local memorabilia to hang up.
Pletcher has operated the Lincoln restaurant for 12 years, though it has been in business for the last 30 years under two previous owners. He said the café was voted best breakfast in the “Lincoln’s Choice Awards” for the last eight years.
Pletcher’s love of restaurants sprouted in his college years, when he waited tables at an Applebee’s.
“I love the hospitality business,” he said. “It’s a passion. If you enjoy what you do, you don’t work a day in your life. That’s how I feel.”
He also runs the Boat House Bar and Grill near Branched Oak Lake in the summer months, April through October.
The café menu includes traditional American fare for breakfast and lunch: pancakes, eggs and sausage, burgers and chicken baskets.
Those who have eaten at the Engine House or the Boat House might recognize some of the menu items.
“I’m taking what people like best from the Engine House and from the lake and they’re sort of merged here,” Pletcher said. “It’s the best of both.”
Pletcher said he started looking for another place to open a café five or six years ago. He looked at what is now Café on the Square in Seward, but it wasn’t quite what he wanted.
When the Milford location became available at the right price, he thought he’d give it a try – while experimenting with his business model.
The café operates with just one cook and one server. Since it doesn’t have a full kitchen, the food is cooked in a trailer outside, at least for now.
“It’s simplified. It’s not labor intensive,” Pletcher said. “With COVID, we learned to do more with less.”
Pletcher plans to hold a grand opening and ribbon cutting in April. The café is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
