By Eduardo Galindo
A new restaurant called Brothers Cafe is opening its doors at the beginning of 2024 in Millbrae on Magnolia Ave, where they will be giving Millbrae residents and Mills students alike a place to eat and have a good time.
Around January or February of next year, Brothers Cafe will have its opening day and welcome customers in. On the day of opening, Kosta Panos, one of the co-owners of the Cafe, is planning to do a “soft opening” for the Cafe, “We are just going to open our doors and see what happens.” Their restaurants in San Mateo and South San Francisco have also opened this way to keep their staff manageable on opening day.
Brothers Cafe serves primarily American breakfast dishes and lunch options like salads, burgers, and pasta. Their main focal point is breakfast; as such, they have many different options, from pancakes and waffles to eggs and oatmeal. They also have a vegan menu for an alternative lunch. Their prices for these dishes are usually around $16-19, but for some breakfast meals could be a cheap $5-10.
Billy and Kosta are the co-owners of Brother’s Cafe and brothers. They started their restaurant in 2016 and have been selling American breakfast ever since. At the moment, Brothers Cafe has two other locations; their first location is in SSF, and the other one is in San Mateo, and both have been doing well so far.
Students have said that the restaurant looked interesting and would check it out if they saw it. Owen Neumyer(12) mentioned, “I would be willing to try.” Moreover, another student commented, “The menu looks good and looks professional.” students are interested in seeing what will become of this new Cafe.
In order to spread the news about the new location, Brothers Cafe is planning on giving the news to their other locations. “Word of mouth here[in South San Francisco] and in San Mateo, all customers know that we are opening a third location,” as explained by Kosta. They also use social media to attract customers to the new restaurant who might need to learn about the other locations.
The owners of Brothers Cafe chose Millbrae as the location for their new Cafe because of its need for American breakfast-style restaurants. They have mentioned Millbrae Pancake House as the only location like it, and with many of the restaurants in Millbrae centering around ethnic foods, they believed the American-styled cuisine would stand out. The location in San Mateo was chosen for this exact reason; Kosta said, “There was no breakfast in that shopping center[in San Mateo]. You could not get coffee anywhere either.” So far, it has worked well for both locations, and they hope the new Cafe will be the same.
Before Brothers Cafe had chosen Millbrae for the new Cafe’s location, the restaurant there before was the Little Whale. It used to combine Italian and Thai restaurants that have since closed.
After the Brothers Cafe in Millbrae location finishes, they have no plans to expand but have said it is still in the picture. “Who knows, maybe we will open a fourth one later, but for now, Millbrae will be the last one,” as explained by Kosta.
Kosta, the co-owner of Brothers Cafe, has a final message to give those interested in the Cafe, “Please come support Millbrae when we do.”
