Longtime Butler County restaurant shuts down permanently

Longtime Butler County business Perkins Restaurant & Bakery permanently closed its location at 7412 Tylersville Road in West Chester Twp. earlier this week.

“Our lease has expired,” Russell Berner, vice president of operations for Pennsylvania-based JDK Management Co., told this news outlet. “Basically, it’s not renewable.”

JDK owns and operates 51 Perkins locations, including in Fairfield, Mason, Miamisburg and North College Hill, making it the largest franchisee in the Perkins system of more than 300 Perkins locations nationwide, Berner said.

MORE: Why this vacant Hamilton building will become the city’s latest new restaurant

The restaurant employed approximately 40 people, about 75 percent of whom accepted JDK’s offer to work at other Perkins locations after the West Chester location’s last day of operations this past Sunday, he said.

A portion of the’ property on which Perkins was located — just 0.1867 acres — was purchased for right of way in 2017 for $218,153, according to Betsy Horton, spokeswoman for the Butler County Engineer’s Office.

It will be incorporated into the second phase of infrastructure improvements for the area, including adding additional westbound lanes on Tylersville Road from Cox Road to Interstate 75, Horton said.

The property once was home to a Stuckey’s gas station before it was converted to a Perkins, Berner said. In 2000, a new 5,200-square-foot facility was constructed on the 1.1-acre property, according to Butler County Auditor’s Office records.

MORE: 6 Butler County restaurants that opened or announced plans in November

“There was a fire (after that) and then it was rebuilt sometime prior to us owning it in 2005,” he said.

JDK plans to add Perkins locations to the Cincinnati region, where the restaurant got its start, he said.

“We just acquired the Youngstown and Erie, Pennsylvania markets, so we’re trying to get that settled first and then we’ll return to Cincinnati and hope to build some new Perkins there in the near future,” he said. “We believe in the Ohio market, the Cincinnati market, and we will be working feverishly to add new locations.”

MORE: New Butler County restaurant, microbrewery opens: Here’s what it offers

About the Author