New Goshen pancake house open for business

Jan. 21—GOSHEN — On Monday, a brother and sister duo opened the latest American Pancake House Restaurant — right here in Goshen.

"We have (a) breakfast and lunch menu," said co-owner Nick Kladis. "We have omelets, skillets, eggs, sandwiches, salads and every day we make homemade soups. We also specialize on baked apple pancake and German pancakes. We have frittata, crêpes, frittata pancakes and freshly squeezed orange juice."

The restaurant, located at 425 W. Pike St., is open Monday through Sunday 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The siblings have other locations in northern Indiana, and have faced challenges along the way to bring their new location to life.

"We do have two (other) locations, one in South Bend and one in Mishawaka — Mishawaka originally, then South Bend," Kladis said. "About a year and half ago we purchased the old Bob Evans here in Goshen and then COVID hit; then we couldn't do anything, as far as opening up, or anything like that. About a year ago we decided that it was a good idea for us to introduce Goshen (to) our food and service that we have at our other locations, which we've been there for 25 years in the South Bend-Mishawaka area."

"When I decided a year ago to open it up, I thought it was going to take me three months since it was already an existing restaurant here," he said. "But because of COVID, the challenges that we faced was a lot of shortages of supplies."

Kladis said his family background is Greek.

"Its a family-run business," he said. "Me, my dad and my sister started 25 years ago."

Kladis hopes to satisfy both his new customers along with his longtime support base.

"We want to introduce our kitchen and our service in this area," he said. "So far this is the second day that we have been opened, and so far customers are 100% satisfied and we want people to understand that we are facing shortage of help. I'm sure people understand that the service is not what it used to be — well in my opinion the service is not like it used to be two years ago.

"We're trying to do the best we can to make everybody happy. I'm here every day walking around making sure our customers are happy. A lot of people come from South Bend and Mishawaka area and say OK, yes it is the same and they congratulate us and we want to keep it like that."

Kladis' business partner and sister Zoi Kladis has a message for future customers.

"We want to make sure we give good food, good service and customer satisfaction," Zoi Kladis said. "We strive for that."

Zoi Kladis reflected on how the family business first got underway.

"My dad immigrated here in the '70s and he started it and got me and my brother to work with him, and we liked it," she said. "So we started working and we decided we should start expanding. We like doing this kind of work."

For more information and to view a full menu visit www.americanpancakehouse.net/.

Joseph Weiser is a photojournalist for The Goshen News. Contact him at joseph.weiser@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2349 or (cell) 574-202-8479.