Root and Pecker will start serving breakfast and stop offering dinner on Monday.
The cafe, located at 5408 NW Eighth Ave., will change its hours to 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, and serve breakfast items from when they open until 10 a.m., said Brad Brooks, the co-owner, CEO and head chef. New menu options include homemade bagels and vegan quiche cradled in a hash brown crust.
“We haven’t seen the success during dinner as we have in our daytime hours,” said Brooks. “When you come to our property at 7 a.m. the parking lot is full, but if you come at 7 p.m. there’s like three cars.”
Root and Pecker is currently open for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, but once the changes are made, the cafe will only be available in the evenings for private parties and community events.
“We basically want to open up the nighttime space for more community centered events, like we used to do,” Brooks said.
Brooks opened Root and Pecker four years ago when he found out he was going to have a son, Evan. He had owned a garden supply store on the same property but couldn’t compete with stores like Home Depot and Lowes, he said. The name of the cafe was Cymply Fresh before he changed the name in 2016.
“My son was definitely the main catalyst behind Root and Pecker,” said Brooks. “The restaurant opened two weeks after Evan was born.”
Hannah Green, a 23-year-old Gainesville resident and Root and Pecker regular, said she is disappointed she’s losing the dinner option.
“I’m sad that they aren’t serving dinner because it’s hard to find vegan restaurants and when I go out, I want to be able to go somewhere with my non-vegan friends,” she said.
