Bensalem Restaurant Reopens With New Owner

Its menu and owner are different.

But the mysterious name remains the same.

Pookie’s restaurant, which closed this fall after less than a year in business, has reopened.

Bud Jones of Feasterville, a veteran of the restaurant business, opened the door of the eatery in the Village Center on Bristol Road on Dec. 6.

“I saw the Century 21 sign in the window. I pass it by on my way to work,” he said.

So he got in touch with the former owner, Kent Boyer, who owns the center. Soon after he bought the business and decided to keep the name.

“He spent all that money on the sign (outside),” Jones said of Boyer.

Jones, 59, said he has owned 12 restaurants in his life and currently owns the Breakfast Nook in Cinnaminson, NJ, and the Dredge Harbor Dockside Café in Delran, NJ.

He has expanded Pookie’s menu, added take-out service and allows dinner customers (Wednesdays through Saturdays) to bring their own bottle.  The expanded menu includes crab cakes made from scratch, homemade soups and grits. You can get a single egg and toast for just $2.

“I’d like to think our food is better but everyone feels that way,” Jones said.

The staff is comprised of about a dozen employees, including four waitresses who worked for Boyer and four cooks.

The former owner, who was a first-time restaurateur, is honest about his decision to sell.

“We just didn’t do enough business. We were almost there,” he said.

“I wish him (Jones) luck.”

Now that he’s out of the restaurant business, will he let folks know where the name Pookie’s came from?

“No. That’s a secret.”