Eye on Business: Dottie’s Dinette
As small business in Fishtown continues to live life on the upswing, one eatery—devoted to the art of breakfast—is emerging in the area.
Dottie’s Dinette, a new, breakfast-all-day restaurant, is already gaining a following in its first few months at 1080 N. Delaware Avenue, right across the street from SugarHouse Casino. Susan VanVreede, the 28-year-old General Manager and Executive Chef of Dottie’s, opened the establishment’s doors in December 2014.
VanVreede has seen business start to build in the last three months, as neighborhood residents continue to discover the restaurant.
“They love it,” VanVreede said of Dottie’s new patrons. “The same people come back every weekend. We have ‘regulars’ now, with a few people who come in and order ‘the usual.’”
Open seven days a week, from 8 a.m., to 4 p.m., the restaurant prides itself not only on breakfast all day, but on their ingredients.
“The quality is excellent,” VanVreede said. “We make everything fresh, in-house, every day. We might be a ‘diner,’ but the food surpasses people’s ideas of ‘diner food.’”
Dottie’s also gets many of its ingredients locally, even down to the coffee—bought from Green Street Roasters, in Philly—and their syrup, which comes from Lancaster County.
The most popular thing on Dottie’s menu?
“The pancakes,” VanVreede said. “For two bucks apiece, we make huge, fluffy pancakes, as big as the plate itself.”
While peak hours are still at lunch—when customers request Dottie’s second-biggest seller, the Kobe beef burger—breakfast hours are picking up as awareness spreads. VanVreede hopes the restaurant will be a 24-hour establishment soon, as business keeps increasing.
As Dottie’s Dinette waits for completion of a big, storefront sign to catch the eyes of passersby, it is using good, old-fashioned neighborhood collaboration to get their names out there.
“We are in the process of being an approved vendor for SugarHouse Casino,” VanVreede said. “We give their employees a 10 percent discount now, and we already do a lot of deliveries to their poker rooms.”
VanVreede also said she’d like to get business from people on their way out of SugarHouse, joking, “Especially the lucky jackpot winners!”
As Sugar House undergoes construction to expand both wings of the casino, VanVreede has been spending time in the parking lot handing out free coffee and cookies to the construction workers.
“Because of that, they’ve been coming in more,” she said. “They’ll be around through summertime, so hopefully that’ll mean more business. I make sure to tell them, ‘We’ve got scrapple; come on in!’”
A former chef de cuisine at famous restaurateur José Garces’ Distrito restaurant in Philly, VanVreede now enjoys being on the business side of things at Dottie’s, doing both kitchen and back office work. She made the move, knowing the opportunity she has in Fishtown.
“This area is just booming,” VanVreede said. “With the casino expansion… to hotels coming up here, we really got in on the ground floor.”
VanVreede will also assume similar management responsibilities at Mexican bar/restaurant Johnny Mañanas, as it will soon expand from its East Falls location to right next door in the same building at 1080 N. Delaware Ave.
“The individuality of each restaurant that comes to Fishtown is being accepted by our target markets,” she said. “The niche marketing is what is making money for the area, and what will keep driving our success and expansion.”
