Time To Make The Donuts: The Downyflake To Reopen At Fairgrounds Restaurant

It's time to make the donuts.

After a year and a half in exile, the beloved Downyflake will soon make a triumphant return to Nantucket in a new home: the Fairgrounds restaurant.

The Downyflake owners, Pate Kennedy and Ron Oldham, have struck a deal with new Fairgrounds Restaurant owners Ethan and Alexis Devine to combine the two establishments at the Fairgrounds under one roof.

Since Kennedy and Oldham closed The Downyflake in the fall of 2024 due to the construction of the new mixed-use development along Sparks Avenue, they had been searching for a new home for the restaurant. They were first connected with the Devines last November through mutual friends, and conversations about a potential collaboration followed.

"We had been looking for a year and a half for a place to move The Downyflake, and we must have talked to close to a dozen people," Kennedy said. "And we appreciated all the different ideas that people in the community had. But this was the right choice. First of all, it's a longevity thing. It's going to be here, and it's not going anywhere, and it's for families. This is a great property; there's parking, and a great staff here, so a lot of things make sense for us. I always had faith we would find the right spot."

The initial plan will see The Downyflake open inside the Fairgrounds, offering donuts, coffee, and breakfast sandwiches from a counter without table service. As they get their feet under them and staff up, The Downyflake will utilize the Fairground's banquet hall to offer full breakfast service. Many of the details are still being worked out, and The Downyflake is actively looking for staff, but they are targeting late June for the initial opening.

"When it was Bill and Kim here, and Mark (Hogan) and Susan (Tate) over at The Downyflake, they all shared a lot of the same customers," Kennedy said. "So it's carrying on the tradition, and having them all under one roof is fantastic."

The eventual concept is to have The Downyflake open for breakfast from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., then the property will transition directly into lunch and dinner service through The Fairgrounds. And while they will be sharing space, the two restaurants will remain separate and distinct.

"It's really like opening a second restaurant inside your restaurant," Devine said. "Nobody who's working your dinner shift is going to come in at five in the morning to do breakfast. And it's all separate ingredients, so it's a little bit of an undertaking, but it's important, and that's really the goal."

For Devine, who just reopened The Fairgrounds earlier this year after purchasing the business and the property from Bill and Kim Puder, the concept of partnering with Kennedy and Oldham to resurrect The Downyflake made a lot of sense. To Devine, it continues the tradition of the "community-first" business model that the Puders brought to the establishment over so many years.

"Certainly, Ron and Pate and Bill and Kim have a lot in common - it was always the community first," Devine said. "For both Bill and Kim, once I got inside, I really saw they were making decisions that were maybe, economically, not maximizing for themselves all the time, so that they could put the community first, and it's the same for Ron and Pate."

The Downyflake sign that was on the side of the building on Sparks Avenue will soon be put up inside the Fairgrounds.

"We're not getting any younger, but we still have good energy," Kennedy said. "We've been out of it for a year and a half, and we're really thrilled to help get it up and going again in a new location."

The Downyflake has been an island staple since it opened in 1935 on South Water Street and has changed hands several times over the years. In 1965, it was sold by Gordon MacDonald to Karsten Reinemo Sr., and the Reinemo family expanded it from a seasonal restaurant into a year-round business. In 1991, the South Water Street location was destroyed in a gas explosion. After relocating and rebuilding The Downyflake on Sparks Avenue, the Reinemos sold the business to Mark Hogan and Susan Tate, who ran it for two decades before passing the torch to Kennedy and Oldham.

"It's part of the community, part of the fabric," Oldham said of The Downyflake. "It's been here for what, how many years? 90 years? Some form of The Downyflake has been here for a long time. Yes, different locations, and it's been reimagined and started up again, right? This is the next one."