Cape Cod Times - The West End invests in casual elegance

by Gwenn Friss

Jen Villa and Blane Toedt, longtime Cape restaurateurs who had been dating, decided in June that they would become business partners at The West End eatery Villa had owned for three years.

In September, the restaurant's co-owners sealed their personal partnership with vows. 

“Yep, we had a COVID wedding — all outside and we cut our guest list from 200 to 50,” Villa says. “Our story was like so many this year.”

At The West End, Villa and Toedt have seen people canceling the celebrations — office parties, showers, weddings — that have normally been a mainstay at their elegant Hyannis restaurant with its early-20th-century decor. The dark-wood bar and paneling invite one to sit for a top-shelf bourbon — at least before COVID-19 put restrictions on bars.

The West End is located in what, for decades, was The Paddock, a popular pre- and post-show dining spot right next to the Cape Cod Melody Tent.

Removing carpet to show off hardwood floors,  installing new lighting, and emphasizing the restaurant's etched glass dividers has made The West End's building brighter and seemingly more spacious since Villa bought it, but the bones of the place still speak of a more elegant time. 

“We want people to have a little escape,” says Toedt, former food and beverage manager at Willowbend Country Club in Mashpee. “The building is more than 100 years old. We want people to come here and feel transported.”

The West End was especially charming for the holidays with what felt like miles of twinkling white lights, a Christmas tree in the lounge and silvery ornaments of all shapes and sizes affixed to the ceiling of the corridor leading from the lounge to the garden room full of potted plants.

With a full wall of windows, the garden room now overlooks The West End’s new 88-seat, $60,000 patio. Although the couple started outside dining last spring under a tent, they found it wasn't a long-term solution. They quickly took a leap of faith and, partly with money freed up by aid from the federal government’s Payroll Protection Program, built an open-air space with patio furniture that they hope to use seasonally for years to come.

We hired an architect and a landscaper and did it right,” Toedt says. “It’s a cement footing that is properly graded for drainage and handicap access. We knew we couldn't have outside dining long-term in the tent we had in the parking lot.”

The couple plans to seek town permission for outside dining, snugged up on the side of their building, for next spring and summer, even if the pandemic has eased.

“The patio was open (this year) from July until Nov. 15 and it’s been very popular,” says Villa, who also co-founded both The Local Juice Bar + Pantry in Hyannis and, in 2012, Love Live Local, which advocates for local businesses on the Cape and Islands.

Under the most recent restrictions, The West End has lost 75 percent of its 233 inside seats because of the need for social distancing. But the seats left in the four indoor dining spaces — a main dining room, a lounge, a section of bar tables and a garden room — provide a lot of possibilities, the owners say, such as seating just one or two families in a room.

When people find a place they really connect with and can stay safe, they really bond with it,” Villa says.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              After it became The West End, the Hyannis restaurant was open year-round for the first time. Toedt says, “We don’t want to be known as a seasonal place. We are a local place.”

The couple made a conscious decision to not increase prices last year (the cost of some takeout dishes actually went down), Villa says, although the restaurant, like most, struggled with supply shortages and trying to decide which menu items would work best for takeout, while following state regulations and keeping staff employed and safe. 

“We’re doing three times the work for a third of the revenue,” Toedt says.

The couple describes one heartbreaking weekend last summer when a new dishwasher, after his first shift, tested positive for COVID-19. The existing staffers, who had been avoiding crowds and wearing masks, were all affected.

“It was awful,” Villa says. “Our entire staff (of 20) got tested, we closed for seven days for cleaning and we had to cancel 100 reservations for a Saturday night.”                         

Toedt and Villa know that 2021 will bring more challenges, but they are excited about the good things that are happening.