Piper Bay Café plans 2nd location at former King's in Salem

Sep. 19—Jim Fry of Manor has fond memories of stopping at King's Restaurant when he was younger and getting a slice of hot apple pie with the chain's trademark cinnamon ice cream.

Fry and business partner Preston Gorman of Plum hope to make some new memories, but this time at the former King's on Route 66 in Salem, where they will open a second Piper Bay Cafe. The beach-themed restaurant's original site is on Murrysville Road in Penn Township's Level Green neighborhood.

"Jim, my wife and I all have corporate restaurant backgrounds," Gorman said. "When we started Piper Bay, we designed it with the potential to be franchised and easily replicated."

One thing they did not plan for was how quickly their needs would outgrow the 1,200-square-foot space in Level Green.

"Here, when we do private parties, it has to be off-hours, or we have to close the whole place down, because our max capacity is about 60 people," Gorman said.

The new building is roughly triple the size of Level Green's Piper Bay Cafe, and Fry said that will open up some additional opportunities. The dining-room area, for example, will be partitioned with a full spread of tables in the front and a private event area behind.

"We were doing some fresh baked goods in Level Green, but that stopped during the pandemic," Fry said. "With the size in the back, we can do stuff we've dreamed of, like retail baking and preparing items in bulk that we can then send to the other restaurant."

On Monday, work crews were pulling old equipment and other items out of the Salem building. The seating and layout has gone largely unchanged, and Fry said the plan is to update the whole interior.

Some features, however, intrigued him.

"The overhead fans which vent the whole kitchen are, well, normally overhead," Fry said. "But here, those fans are under the counter, and it gives you this very interesting open-concept kitchen, where people can see the food being prepared."

In addition, staging areas behind the kitchen include necessities for the type of baking operation Fry envisions.

"Things like a big convection oven, a proofer, there's just so much space here that we didn't have before," he said.

Fry and Gorman aren't sure what they'll do with the long mid-restaurant serving station where King's wait-staff had easy access to beverages, soups, ice cream and other items without having to travel back to the kitchen.

"I think we're going to try and keep the lunch counter that's in the front," Fry said. "We had a little three-seat counter when we first opened at Level Green, and this one is kind of unique."

Fry and Gorman are shooting for late October or early November to get the second location up and running.

"Everyone has been really supportive," Gorman said. "We've spoken with some local organizations who already are interested in possibly holding meetings at the new spot."

Fry, who will take over management at the new location, is excited for the possibilities.

"We do outside catering, and sometimes at Level Green we'd have to close just to prepare that food," he said. "But we can do weddings, banquets, graduations, all of that out of here."

For details, see PiperBayCafe.com.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .