Take Two: Merrimack Diner Adds 2nd Location

The walls are a warm yellow and orange in the dining room, looking into a cool green open kitchen. A lunch counter with 10 seats spans the front of the kitchen while table scattered through the dining room give patrons a place to gather in large or small groups.

On a Wednesday afternoon, the restaurant is at least half full and at four months in, that is a great Wednesday afternoon says D.W. Diner and now D.W. Diner II owner Peter Yeanacopolis.

The Merrimack diner-owner opened the second location in Manchester, D.W. Diner II, on Jan. 25 and says they've been seeing a steady climb in the right direction toward a double serving of success.

D.W. Diner II is basically a smaller version of the Merrimack location, down to the window graphics and the countertop.

“It's the exact same menu, well, a different phone number,” Yeanacopolis said.

D.W. Diner II is on South Main Street, part of a small strip mall right near the intersection of Woodbury Street.

Yeanacopolis said its nice for their patrons from the Manchester area who've been visiting the Merrimack locale since it opened in 2005. Now, they can visit the Manchester location and spare themselves the drive, or maybe even walk.

The new locations is in a residential/commercial area within easy walking distance for plenty of Manchester residents. And they do walk to the restaurant, have a meal, and stroll home, Yeanacopolis said.

In fact, it was something he looked at after learning about the 62-seat former cafe was sitting vacant. Yeanacopolis said he likes to make business decisions with his eyes wide open, so he did an extensive demographic investigation in into the area including crime, housing and age groups, and he drove around to get to know the area.

And he found the area to hold a lot of similarities to Merrimack. He's still meeting a lot of blue collar workers and the retired crowd looking for a good meal mid-week that won't break the bank.

As he tells it, Yeanacopolis wasn't necessarily looking to start a second diner when he came across this place. It was pretty perfect, he said. A nice mid-size seating area with a long counter that could be converted to have an overhang for 10 additional seats.

It was already coded with the building health and fire department and required minimal work as compared to the Merrimack store to get it ready to open.

“You don't know how helpful it was (for it to already be coded),” he said. “I wouldn't be walking into any sort of $10,000 nightmare.”

Yeanacopolis said they moved a random free-standing half wall that split the counter from the seating area, he put up TVs, made a few adjustments to the kitchen and added the countertop, but otherwise the restaurant was mostly ready to go.

He closed on the store on Dec. 7 and they were open just a little more than a month later.

“I really like what I do, I always have, so the work is worth it,” Yeanacopolis said of the busy workload of first opening a second store and now running two.

He's been working seven-days-a-week since October between this store and Merrimack, to keep this one growing and the one in Merrimack running smoothly. It wouldn't be nearly as easy without his crew of servers and cooks in both locations.

“I'm very fortunate to have the crew I have,” he said.

He can comfortably leave one store for the other knowing they are both in good hands when he's not there.

Since the store opened, Yeanacopolis said they've seen a slow but steady sales growth, which is fine with him.

“Slow grows have deeper roots,” Yeanacopolis said.

The key for him is to like what you do and put out the effort to provide a good product that pleases the customer.

“When you can say 'Look, these people know we're here and they want to come back,' that's huge,” Yeanacopolis said. “When they choose us over someone else it tells us they like what they get.”

The D.W. Diner II is at 488 South Main St. It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Connect on Facebook.