Sign for PJ's Coffee. Image courtesy of David Bohenick.
A new PJ’s Coffee location in Salisbury opened for business Monday. The restaurant is the first operating unit within 1315 S. Salisbury Blvd since the property was sold over a year ago.
Heather Wieland-Beckey is one of the co-owners for the new location, along with her family. While this is the first PJ’s Coffee to open in Salisbury, this isn’t the first location that they’ve operated.
“There are a couple of PJ’s [Coffees] in the Bowie area and we happen to be the family that owns those restaurants and fell in love with it,” Heather said. “We thought it’d be something great to pursue.”
The opening was anticipated by many Salisbury residents, which was evident from the number of people in the restaurant. The staff saw customers waiting outside the restaurant before they even opened.
“It’s awesome, we had a phenomenal turnout,” Heather said. “We had a friends and family event yesterday too, we had a tremendous turnout for that…. There were people here waiting for us at 5:40 this morning. The Salisbury police department was here, their cars were lined up. It was awesome.”
Still, no amount of preparation could prepare the workers for the rush they received on opening day. Items were selling out and several customers were waiting for their orders.
“We just sold out of our chocolate croissants so that’s a great sign that we’ve sold out of something this early,” Heather said. “The kids are a little overwhelmed right now but in all fairness they are working so hard. We brought up people from Louisiana from corporate to come and train the kids. Everyone’s been trying really hard to keep things rolling.”
One of the workers from the back even came to the front of the restaurant and handed out free beignets to those waiting on their orders.
The ordering area inside PJ's Coffee. Image courtesy of David Bohenick.
Heather hopes PJ’s Coffee can be a local attraction for SU students in the future. Besides being a cafe for students to study, she wants to work with students and their clubs to help host events.
“We’re gonna have some kids run over and drop off coupons at the dorms. We want you guys over here,” Heather said. “There’s ample study space and there are quieter spots than others. We’ve got charging ports all over the place. Internet, of course. We want you guys to come and study. If you want to bring clubs [too], we’d be happy to work with you to organize club events.”
Heather is proud of her staff and is excited to see how PJ’s Coffee will perform in Salisbury. She expects the wait times to decrease over the coming weeks.
“Kids are working to be accurate with the drinks,” Heather said. “They’re really trying hard to be accurate with the drinks so the speed’s gonna come.”
The coffee chain was founded in 1978 by Phyllis Jordan in Louisiana. Today, it has close to 200 locations across 14 states.
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By DAVID BOHENICK
Editor-in-Chief
Featured images courtesy of David Bohenick
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