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Leon Thompson's It's Your Business feature appears in the St. Albans Messenger each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thompson, a St. Albans resident, is a former Messenger staff writer.
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YOURBUSINESS
• A St. Albans Messenger Feature by Leon Thompson
New energy breathed into Country Pantry in Fairfax
Stable, family ownership revitalizes old classic
FAIRFAX - Since they bought and reopened the long-standing Country Pantry restaurant on Route 104 here last September, the new owners have listened to their customers and worked according to their input.
And now Country Pantry faces a stable future.
"The only way we can succeed is to listen to others, because, at the end of the day, they are the ones helping us pay the bills," said Nihad Basic, who owns Country Pantry with his wife, Finzeta, and Finzeta's brother, Ermin.
Ermin is also head chef. His wife, Sigita, also helps at the restaurant. Earlier this summer, Ermin and his business partners unveiled a new, broad, and tasty Country Pantry menu that includes (among many
other items): omelets, pancakes, and house skillets for breakfast; burgers, salads, and Panini for lunch; and steak, shrimp, and pasta for dinner.
Country Pantry seats 111 people and an additional 30 people outside during warm weather months. The restaurant also has a full bar and, earlier this summer, started offering live entertainment every Thursday,
starting at 7:30 p.m. and ending when the music stops, even if it's midnight.
"A lot of times, we get compared with the Country Pantry that used to be," Nihad said. "We are not that. Our weekends are very busy, from breakfast all the way to dinner."
The positive buzz at Country Pantry has encouraged its owners to start formulating other plans, including a cree-mee stand behind the restaurant and perhaps more changes to the patio. Extended hours might
also be part of the mix.
The goal is to make Country Pantry an establishment for everyone ages 5 to 95, Nihad said, while building a reputation as a pleasant, after-hours atmosphere for people in their thirties and forties. "We just want to
please every age," Nihad said.
Given the feedback to date, it should be easy.
"We have a strong .base, of regulars already," Ermin said. "Sometimes, we see the same faces in .here twice a day. And they spread the word. It's a good thing."
Nihad, Ermin and their wives all came to Vermont directly from their native Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war that ravaged their homeland in the early 1990s. Nihad was a machinist at Husky, in Milton, for 10 years, while Ermin worked in the restaurant business in Vermont and then Florida.
In August 2012, Ermin returned to Vermont to own and operate Country Pantry, which he had considered buying when it was for sale five years ago. When it returned to the market last year, he bit.
Nihad and Finzeta were operating a South Burlington tailoring shop at the time. Like Ermin, they believed they could help revive Country Pantry.
"There is plenty of traffic here on 104," Ermin said. "Country Pantry could be successful yet again."
JUST THE FACTS:
owners: Nihad and Finzeta Basic, Ermin Jukic
address: 951 Main St. (Route 104), Fairfax
hours: Tues.-Fri., 11 a.m to 8:30 p.m.; Brunch, Sat. & Sun., 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturday dinner, 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; closed Monday.
phone: 802.849.0599
Web: http://www.countrypantryvt.com (http://www.countrypantryvt.com)