If you haven’t indulged in a giant plate of syrupy waffles or delicious, handmade crepes at Uncle Will’s Pancake House, you’ve at least seen the restaurant’s plump pig sign on Bay Avenue in Beach Haven. The eatery, which draws a crowd of hungry individuals from near and far, is celebrating its 50th year in business.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill The restaurant's present owners, husband and wife Tom and Margie Stewart, met while working there. |
The present owners, husband and wife Tom and Margie Stewart, have led the operation with its eclectic pig motif since the mid-1990s. The two got together in 1996, when Margie, who's also a teacher in Little Egg Harbor, was hostessing at the restaurant.
“She came for a job, and I violated my primary rule of not dating the help because she was worth it,” said Tom.
The pair prides themselves on the establishment’s vast breakfast and dinner (first offered 11 years ago) menus, which feature a fun play on words using famous artists and farmhouse jargon such as the Van Goat (grilled asparagus, wild mushrooms, tomatoes and chevre goat cheese) and Leonardo da Vinsheep (grilled chicken, avocado, sundried tomatoes and manchego) Egg-Stravagant Omelets as well as The Stampede Farmhouse Special (a 7-ounce top round steak with three eggs and three pancakes).
“We have fun with what we do because if you’re not having fun, there’s no reason to do it,” said Tom, who owned the former Tide bar and Mooring restaurant in Bay Village in the late ’80s and is also a previous Beach Haven mayor.
The restaurant’s outsized portions and many substitute accommodations also keep customers coming back.
“If you want it and I have it, why not? We’re the only place on the Island where you can get French toast with your omelets; we’ll give you anything with your eggs,” said Tom. “Most other places, you just get toast or home fries. We’re one of the few places that’ll give you pancakes with your eggs, omelets, whatever, as opposed to just having to have pancakes as an entrée unto themselves. But we also go even further. We give you fruit, we give you sliced tomatoes, whatever the heck you want.”
The restaurant doesn’t offer lunch “because we don’t compete against the beach,” he added.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill The eclectic pig motif is part of the fun of eating at Uncle Will's Pancake House. |
“That’s why people are here, either to be on the beach, to be out on their boats in the bay water skiing or fishing, or whatever. So we get people ready for their day. ... Being a part of someone’s lifestyle is really cool,” he emphasized. “Fifty years is an incredible compliment. It speaks to the quality of the business and the loyalty of our customers,” he added, noting that many restaurants fail within the first two years of opening. “It’s a tradeoff. Do the people come here because Uncle Will’s is so good, or does Uncle Will’s continue to be good because of the people who come here?”
During the ’90s, the restaurant also ran a coffee house called Café Cochon, which means pig in French. It appealed to the times and also gave underage individuals a place to hang out, said Tom.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Customers enjoy the many available food options. |
The entire restaurant menu has evolved from two to six pages since the former owner, Gary Pulz, handed the business over to Tom in ’95.
“I found Gary literally strolling the streets at night, looking up at the moon,” Tom remembered. “He decided (nearly) 22 years was enough.”
Before Pulz, the restaurant was owned by Bill Schaeffer, who opened it as Uncle Bill’s in ’66 and then left the Island in ’76 to reopen the operation in Cape May.
Pulz changed the name to Uncle Will’s to differentiate the two establishments.
“He literally crawled up on a ladder, took down the B and made it a W,” Tom recounted.
The building, constructed in 1922, originally housed a variety of grocery stores, including the Acme, now located in Long Beach Township. The Stewarts have kept the grocery store theme of the location by expanding on the pig theme, which Pulz introduced when he purchased an antique chalkware piggy bank. The vintage pig, sporting a blue hat and overalls, is still on display at the restaurant. Others have also been added, including a few that Tom bought from an Italian-American club in Hackensack.
The newest pig, a ceramic fixture constructed by Amanda Klinger of Paint a Pot in Spray Beach, sits in the middle of the restaurant.
“We named him Uncle Will because everybody would ask us, ‘Well, who’s Uncle Will?’ And since there was no Uncle Will, we said, ‘The pig.’ And now he’s taken on his own identity, and he’s incredibly popular,” said Margie.
Technically, Tom noted, Uncle Will was the farmer on the restaurant’s former sign many years ago. But the pig has become so admired that it even had to undergo emergency repairs after a child “tackled” it three months ago. (As a side note, a car once drove through the front window during dinner 10 years ago. No one was hurt, and the restaurant was open for breakfast the next morning.)
The eatery’s other pig décor ranges from pig-shaped placemats and old Piggy Pears and Buckingham Apples crates to a remake of Pink Floyd’s Animals album cover signed by the band members.
“When I bought the place, I decided if Walt Disney could have his mouse, Uncle Will’s could have a pig,” said Tom.
The restaurant is also famous for hosting a Warren Zevon concert (think “Werewolves of London”) in ’96.
Of course, Tom and Margie attribute the success of the operation to its faithful customers and “outstanding” staff, many of whom have worked there for over 15 years.
“We have such a loyal clientele,” said Margie. “People are here on vacation, but they’re also here for the Uncle Will’s experience. There are people that collect the T-shirts here year after year. ...The kids have literally grown up here.”
On Friday, July 10, customers lined up at the door at 6:30 a.m. to be a part of a live filming by FOX 29’s “Comeback Down the Shore” segment, which celebrated the borough’s 125th anniversary.
“The clientele is so loyal that they woke up that early to be here,” said Margie.
Like many other LBI establishments, Uncle Will’s took a hit from Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, with 41 inches of floodwater inside the building. However, the restaurant was able to reopen the following March. Despite their own hardship, the Stewarts made a point of actively supporting the Friends of Southern Ocean County Animal Shelter after the storm.
“It became very apparent there was an incredible influx in abandoned pets due to Sandy, either because folks were forced out of their homes and had to relocate ... or due to financial circumstances resulting from Sandy,” said Tom.
“You can either complain that it’s dark, or you can get up and turn on a light; Uncle Will’s wanted to help turn on a light,” he emphasized.
Over the past two years, the restaurant has hosted four fundraising dinners and contributed nearly $20,000 to the volunteer organization. Another fundraiser is expected to be held in the fall.
The couple said they want Uncle Will’s to continue and will remain as the owners for as long as they can. The next owners will carry on the restaurant’s many traditions, the pair assured.
“Fifty years from now, unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be around because I’m 54, but I’ve always looked at the 21 years that I’ve been here as that I am nothing more than a caretaker of Uncle Will’s who maintains the integrity and the tradition and the heritage that I’ve been fortunate enough to have,” said Tom. “There are very few businesses that have been around this long, that are part of people’s tradition of coming on vacation and having breakfast with us. ... Many places serve great food, but Uncle Will's has always taken pride in its singular service.”
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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