John Godfrey does not want his customers to feel like they walked into a restaurant when they enter The Homestead, a reliable source of affordable home-style cooking and hospitality in Riverview for almost 30 years.
“From the start, we wanted people to feel like they were coming into our home,” the long-time owner explained. “We wanted to greet people with a smile and offer good home-cooked meals in a comfortable setting surrounded by friends,” he said. “We’ve been very lucky to have a lot of great people work for us who feel the same way and we’ve been able to keep a strong customer base who will continue to come back to us regularly.”
John, his father Jim, and late mother Jane purchased the former Sandwich Hut restaurant and opened The Homestead in 1991. None of them had a background in the food business, but they agreed Riverview would be the perfect site for a restaurant that offered honest food that reminded them of the meals their grandmother used to make.
They moved to their current location two years later and they have written a success story, which has seen The Homestead become one of Greater Moncton’s favorite casual dining options. They have won several community-based awards and compliments come daily from their loyal customers.
“From the bottom of my heart, I can’t thank the people of this area enough,” Godfrey said. “It’s been a lot of heart work – starting from my parents in the beginning and through the incredible staff we have been blessed with all of these years.
“Restaurants have come and gone in the Moncton area because it’s a tough business, but we’ve been able to stay here because our formula has never changed. Fads are going to come and go, and different types of restaurants have come into the market, but we still think our methods work well.”
The Homestead is facing the challenge of offering take-out meals as a way of expanding the business.
“Our type of food is not made for take-out so we’re exploring new recipes and methods,” Godfrey said. “At the same time, we don’t want to make too many changes because it worked so well for a long time.”