SHARPSVILLE, Pa. – Tiffany Daley, who has operated Breakfast at Tiffany’s Diner for more than 20 years, recalled what she considers to be her best day at the restaurant.
On a Sunday morning more than a decade ago, she was cooking in the diner’s kitchen when a server came to tell her about something unusual that was happening. There was a line out the door of people waiting to be seated.
“No, there’s not,” she said, incredulous, and left the kitchen to see for herself that it was true.
The server was right. It was.
“We’d never had a line out the door,” she recalled. “This is what you work for in this industry.”
Daley, who lives in Hermitage, purchased the former Nancy’s Cozy Cafe, where she worked, about 21 years ago and eventually rebranded it as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, named for her and the classic movie starring Audrey Hepburn. Now a Shenango Valley staple, it’s no longer unusual to see a line of customers heading into the diner on weekend mornings.
Daley is now seeking to pass along the spatula to a new owner. She has put the 45 S. Walnut St. building and the business – which is open for breakfast and lunch and is known for its pizza pan-size pancakes – up for sale.
“I need to take something off my plate,” she said. “I’ve always been a people pleaser, so it’s really hard for me to choose retiring over the restaurant.”
About 16 years ago, Daley began serving as a substitute teacher in Trumbull Career & Technical Center’s culinary arts program, where she was trained, and is finishing her eighth year as a TCTC faculty member. A year or so ago, she began thinking about stepping away from the diner to focus more on her health and family, she said.
“How do I give my best here to my kids if I’m burnt out mentally and physically from being a business owner?” she remarked.
As an educator, Daley said she wants her students to feel safe and successful.
“I have a passion for teaching them that they can do anything; they can become anyone,” she said. “I want them to feel like [retired culinary arts instructor James] Antenucci made me feel when I was in school,” she said. “He made me feel cared about. He made me feel smart, and he made me feel successful. And that, to me, is immeasurable.”
Daley publicly disclosed her intention to sell the diner in a Facebook post last weekend, but she shared her plans with the diner’s staff last fall.
“I basically explained that it’s just getting more and more difficult for me to try to juggle everything, and my intent was to find a buyer that would hopefully keep the crew and keep things going,” she said.
“Retiring has been on my mind for a good year, maybe a year and a half, and the only thing that has stopped me is my team because I worry about them,” Daley said. “I worry about the questions that they’re going to have to answer from customers coming in. … They’re so stressed to the max. I didn’t realize how much of an impact this restaurant had on people.”
She might have started the diner, but she credits its success to her staff, which she said is its “heartbeat.” She recalled when she took time off to care for her mother, who had been ill.
“That really showed me that the staff is the heart of the diner,” she said. “They are the heartbeat of it, and they can run the diner.”
The diner’s parking lot was full Thursday morning. Daley said she suspects people are “panic eating” because they think they are never going to be able to eat there again.
“We really are not closing. We are staying as long as my team is there and my team is game,” she reassured. “That’s what’s going to happen, because without them, I don’t have a restaurant.”
Her experience as an entrepreneur also has informed how she approaches her role as an instructor in restaurant management, dining room service and operations. She does “mock service” all the time and pulls up reviews – both positive and negative ones – for the diner and asks her students how they would handle them.
“I am definitely going to miss being able to come in on a Monday or Tuesday and talk about a story or situation,” she said. “I’ll miss that part, for sure.”
The diner has become a destination, according to Kenneth Robertson, Sharpsville borough manager. Daley and her staff have built a great reputation over the years.
“It’s tough to get a seat there. You’ve got to wait because people come from all over wanting to enjoy breakfast there,” Robertson said. “They make you feel welcome and provide great service, whether you dine in or take out.”
Carmen Aiello II, president and CEO of VisitMercerCountyPA, the county’s tourism promotion agency, lives five blocks away from the diner, and he and his family are regular patrons. “We would just go down there and understand that we were going to wait in line for 20 minutes or whatever,” he said.
Daley acknowledges people from all over reach out to her to let her know that they’re planning to visit. “They might be from out west or they might be from down south, but it’s really cool to hear,” she said.
Aiello can attest to how far the diner’s reputation has spread. While representing VisitMercerCountyPA at a golf show in Toronto in 2016, a group of men approached him and specifically said how much they loved Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
“We often hear rave reviews about larger dining venues from as far away as Canada – Quaker Steak & Lube, Springfield Restaurant Group, Talbot’s Taproom, etc. – but hearing praise for a small Sharpsville establishment was particularly exciting,” he remarked. “That kind of out-of-town word of mouth shows how really unique local businesses can contribute to our tourism appeal in Mercer County.”
Retirement also will provide the opportunity for Daley to devote more time to charitable causes, including organizations that provide humanitarian aid such as Mission of Love and pet rescue groups.
“Anytime we can help the community do anything, I want to,” she said. “We almost don’t say no.”
Both Aiello and Robertson hope Daley is able to find an owner who is willing to carry on the tradition that she has built at the diner.
“Hopefully, Tiffany can find someone that has the same enthusiastic approach to business, to that diner, as she does,” Aiello said.
“Hopefully, they get the right owner in there that can build on that foundation of good, quality food at a good price and keep it going as a success, not just for Sharpsville but the entire area.” Robertson agreed. “I’m certain she’ll make certain the right person with the right talent is able to keep that tradition going.”
Daily said she has “lost count” of how many people have reached out privately since the social media post inquiring about the diner. She refers names and other information to her real estate agent, who also is receiving inquiries.
“All I can think about is my staff right now and how hard they work and how scared they probably are,” she remarked. She also said she hadn’t anticipated the outpouring from the community following the social media post.
“I didn’t know that many people cared,” she said. “Every person that’s ever worked for the diner, every customer that has ever come into the diner has shaped and molded what it is.”
Pictured at top: Tiffany Daley, owner of Breakfast at Tiffany’s Diner, is also an instructor at Trumbull Career & Technical Center.