Area Village Inn franchises undergoing $5M transformation

Your local Village Inn will soon have a new look – and something stronger than coffee on the menu.

Village Inn is a casual-dining restaurant chain with more than 100 locations throughout the country, known for its breakfast menu and award-winning pies. Nine Village Inn franchises throughout Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco Counties are now or will soon be undergoing renovations, giving the well-known chain restaurants a fresh, modern look and an updated menu with plans to serve alcohol – a first for Village Inns in the area.

Owner/operator Daniel Lehan said he’s submitted a liquor license application and hopes to roll out a full bar menu at the Village Inn locations on 4th Street N. in St. Petersburg, Tampa Road in Oldsmar and a new location on Roosevelt Blvd. in Clearwater, by February 2024.

“The current guest today likes mimosas and Bloody Marys, so I think [serving alcohol] is going to be a great enhancement for the business because that’s where the crowds go,” said Lehan. “Roosevelt is going to have a bar in it and Oldsmar does have a bar in it. That will be phase two here [in St. Petersburg], so we’re going to test it. I think St. Pete is going to blow it up because we like brunches. And we’ve got some mimosas themed after our pies that resonate with our guests.”

Lehan knows his guests and the Village Inn brand well; his first job was as a table busser in 1990 at the Village Inn on 4th in St. Pete. He worked his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming general manager at that same location, then purchasing his first franchise in 2011, on Walsingham Road in Largo.

“We want to make sure people know that we’re not a big gigantic corporation. We’re locally owned and operated,” Lehan said. “We want to de-chain ourselves. I know that sounds weird, but we are changed, and we have a little bit of spirit and uniqueness.”

The Catalyst reached out to the Village Inn corporation to ask if our local locations will be the first Village Inn franchises to serve alcohol. Emails seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Lehan partnered with The Agency Group in St. Petersburg to come up with a modern design for the locations, with a focus on cool tones, greenery and pops of color. Daniel Lehan’s husband, CJ Lehan, is the owner and lead designer at The Agency Group and said unique details and nods to the local history will be central themes at each location.

“Roosevelt will be the next remodel and it’ll be kind of like a flagship. It’ll be different,” said CJ Lehan. “It will have a bar just like Oldsmar, but everything in Roosevelt will be curated, including a chandelier going in. We’re playing on a lot of our heritage, a nod to the past.”

A $300,000 remodel is underway at the 4th Street location; the new look debuted at the Oldsmar location earlier this year. Daniel Lehan said both have been well-received, and he’s hoping increased sales at both locations are a sign of what’s to come.

“We started painting the 4th Street restaurant last Thursday and we saw probably about 1,000 additional guests this week. Everyone’s curious because it was the same color for the last 17 years,” Lehan said. “ We’re doing all this so that we can stay relevant. When you look at this store, specifically, the Village Inn brand has been here for 42 years now. It’s time for us to break the mold a little bit and make people understand that it’s not just a plastic, rubber brand – that it actually has made-from-scratch recipes. We never get the credit for that.”

“We’ve been very cautious and careful to make sure that we don’t alienate our loyal guests,” he added. “This year, we’ll probably serve about 1.2 million guests [at our nine locations]. We’re hoping to double that with all of our new offerings, expanding our current offerings and bringing our quality to a new consumer that we normally wouldn’t touch.”

In addition to a new exterior and interior design, food offerings and a full bar, Lehan’s nine Village Inn locations will begin serving espresso-based craft coffee beverages, including cappuccinos, lattes and iced coffees.