If it were up to Jeff Burns, a new Perko’s Café would have opened months ago at the Union Road-Lathrop Road intersection. It would be there right along with CVS Pharmacy and McDonald’s.
But like the wheels of justice that grinds exceedingly slow, new-development gears can move at a tortoise’s pace.
“We’d love to get back into the town,” said Burns who owns the Perko’s franchise in Manteca.
However, he can’t open the new café at the northwest Manteca location until developer Bill Filios makes the move to finish building the shopping center which is kitty-corner from Raley’s.
“Filios gave me a call probably a month ago and he said it’s getting closer. He said, ‘I’ll give you a call back,’ about two weeks ago, but I’ve never heard anything else. So, we’re just going to sit here and wait,” said Burns who has nine franchises in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties under Dynaco Food Conceps whose holdings include Perko’s Café and Huckleberry’s, another popular breakfast place. Burns owns two Huckleberry’s franchises and seven Perko’s Café in this area.
When the Manteca Perko’s Café closed in April of 2012, the restaurant manager at the time announced that they will be reopening at a new location saying, “We’re going to be at the Del Webb area.” She also said that a brand-new building would be constructed for the café and that “it will take about a year” for the construction to be completed and for the restaurant to reopen its doors for business.
Some of the 20 to 25 employees were moved to other Perkos’ restaurants in the area which somewhat softened the layoff for some of the workers.
Burns said he has had calls from interested individuals in Manteca asking when Perko’s would reopen. One of the calls came from someone who lives at the Del Webb development, he said. The Manteca Bulletin has also received a couple of inquiries about the reopening of the café.
“I told them who the person I was dealing with, and to let me give him (Filios) a call,” Burns said.
“Two years ago, we got together and I met with him. We went through everything, talked about the lease agreement and everything,” he said. Filios explained to him at that time that he “needed” to find other tenants for the corner commercial shopping center, Burns added.
A telephone call to Filios seeking comment was not returned as of press time. However, he has indicated to the Manteca Bulletin in previous stories that he needed other tenants to make the corner shopping center financially feasible.
Perko’s manager at the time of the café’s closure did not divulge the exact reason why it was quitting the site where it was located for more than a decade. Immediately after Perko’s vacated the building, the Black Bear diner moved in and is still doing business at the corner of East Yosemite Avenue and Button Avenue, one of the busiest intersections in Manteca. It’s just east of the northbound Highway 99 onramp.
Perko’s Café was a popular meeting place for a number of local organizations including the Manteca Republican Women’s Federation, the Manteca Federated Women’s Club, and the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
