Laura and Pedro Monroy are bringing from-scratch, fast fare to downtown Afton.
The couple opened Monroy Family Pit Stop at 214 Main St. in Afton about two months ago.
“We’re from Endicott, but we left Endicott to come over here and do this,” Laura Monroy said. “It’s been a dream for my husband for a very long time to open up his own place. He was the manager at the Dugout (Sports Bar & Pizzeria) in Apalachin for a while, but we just decided to drive around and look for places, and we saw this place was open. I took down the number and called and they said it was (available), and we jumped on it.”
Monroy said the menu draws on Pedro’s experience, featuring “a lot of Greek and American food.”
“We serve Philly cheesesteaks and gyros that everybody loves, cheeseburgers, chicken breast sandwiches, BLTs, tuna wraps and chicken cordon bleu sandwiches,” she said. “We do breakfast as well, which is a lot of different eggs and omelets — a western omelet, Greek omelet, meat-lovers’, spinach and feta, and they all come with home fries, which we make our own, and they include toast. With the lunches, we include homemade coleslaw and french fries.
“The gyros and Philly cheesesteaks are most popular,” Laura continued. “For the gyros, we use chicken, which we cut and make ourselves, and the beef is the flat meat and we make our own tzatziki. Everything is homemade, even our chicken tenders. We do specials every day; we did meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy, and that sold out, then we did porkchops with mashed potatoes and gravy, and that sold out. And we’ve done quesadillas and a whole bunch of different things. (Pedro) worked in many different restaurants before he became manager at the Dugout, and (Greek food) is a lot of the food he knows and is familiar with.”
Customers, Monroy said, are appreciating such variety and quality.
“Everybody’s loving it and everybody loves the food and says it’s really good and great prices and that you get a lot of food for the price,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of good feedback on the Afton (Facebook page) and there’s been nothing but good remarks. They say they’re glad we got this place and hope we stay here, and we’re definitely going to stay, because there’s not anything (like this) in Afton.”
Monroy said Monroy Family Pit Stop has “four small tables inside,” though does primarily to-go orders with customers “coming from everywhere.”
“They’re coming from three towns over and Oneonta, Binghamton, plus local, so we get a lot of different customers through,” she said. “And we’re right by the highway, so they’re from (Massachusetts) and New Jersey, wherever.”
Monroy said she and Pedro are hoping for more of the same as the restaurant establishes itself.
“We just want to continue doing what we’re doing and making everybody in the community happy,” she said. “That’s what we want.”
Monroy Family Pit Stop is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., every day but Tuesday.
For more information or a complete menu, find “Monroy Family Pit Stop” on Facebook. Also, call 607-624-1451.