The Trails’ Enders (formerly the Whistle Stoppers), left to right: Barry Palu, birthday boy Bryan Ernst, Jim Nicholson, Judy Fox, John Ciraso and John Snelling. (Photos by Alice Waugh)
Trail’s End Café welcomed its first customers on Monday morning in the Lincoln space occupied by the former Whistle Stop—and just as he was for the Whistle Stop, Barry Palu was its very first customer.
Palu is one of a group of former Whistle Stop regulars who met to eat breakfast, solve the newspaper crossword puzzle and kid around over coffee. They were left without a meeting place after the Whistle Stop closed in July, but Palu eagerly anticipated its successor. He arrived half an hour after Trail’s End Café opened at 6:30 a.m. but was the only customer. But by 10:00, the place was busy, and he and his friends were ensconced at an outdoor table on the warm, early fall morning.
Trail’s End Café doesn’t look much different from the Whistle Stop except for the shiny new espresso machines, but customers were delighted with the experience. “It’s fantastic—there’s no comparison,” Palu said. His friend Judy Fox agreed as she sang the praises of the steel-cut oatmeal she had for breakfast.
“It’s a little higher [in price], but well worth it to me,” Palu added.
The café serves breakfast and lunch (primarily soups, salads and sandwiches), since it doesn’t have any cooking equipment aside from an oven. Those in search of dinner will have to wait until the debut of Trail’s End Kitchen, which will open in the former Aka Bistro space later this fall or early winter after completing renovations.
“It will be a very different feeling from what was there before,” said co-owner Elizabeth Akehurst-Moore. It will be homey, serving “carefully crafted comfort food” for lunch and dinner along with both a kids’ menu and cocktails, wine and draft beer.
General manager Bree Showalter fills an order at the Trails’ End Café.
All three eateries are owned by Akehurst-Moore and her parents, Lincoln residents Jim and Carol Wright, who opened the Concord location in 2011 as a breakfast spot and began serving dinner in 2014. Although they weren’t actively looking to open another location, they were approached by some people who encouraged them to consider the old library in Weston Center, but residents subsequently decided to turn the site into the Weston Art and Innovation Center, Akehurst-Moore said. After Aka Bistro closed, others urged them to consider that site, “and we thought it had good potential,” she said. They signed leases for both locations on August 31.
Asked how she viewed the market for her Lincoln venture, Akehurst-Moore said, “I think personally what Lincoln needs is what we’re going to provide: good food but not an overly formal, white-tablecloth setting—a place you can go on a regular basis that’s affordable but high-quality. I think we’ll be a draw for the whole area.”
Although the Concord restaurant hosts music including jazz brunches, Akehurst-Moore said it would depend on the configuration of the space at Trail’s End Kitchen as to whether they could do something similar there, though she said they would certainly be open to renting out the entire facility for private parties.
Robin Bogner (right) and her sons Mateo, 6, and Skylar, 8, enjoy breakfast.
The one thing Akehurst-Moore is sure about is that she’s going to get busier. She’s expecting a baby over the winter to go along with her five-year-old twins, and she’s also involved in developing the Concord Market, which has gotten approval to open in Millbrook Tarry, the same commercial plaza occupied by Trail’s End on Lowell Road in Concord, though not for about a year. The Lincoln venture is the latest stop in a career that began when she earned an art history degree and a master’s degree in architectural preservation and then became a lawyer.
“I have a great staff, obviously,” said Akehurst-Moore, who works closely with Bree Showalter, the general manager of the restaurants who also manned the counter in Lincoln on Monday. “A huge part is getting a team together that’s motivated and hard-working and talented and just as crazy as I am,” she added with a chuckle.
Trail’s End Café will be open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.