Breakfast is Served – and Lunch, Too, at Maxfield’s Pancake House

Gus and Nicky Zarmakoupis saw a niche and decided to fill it. The couple opened a Maxfield's Pancake House restaurant in Fox Point in 2009 that serves breakfast and lunch, but when they were looking to have a good breakfast in Wauwatosa, where they live, they found the choices were limited.

“I would talk to people in the community, and they were going out of the area when they went out for breakfast," Nicky recalled. "Gus said, ‘I think there’s an opportunity here.’”

In August, Gus and Nicky opened Maxfield’s second location, at 2727 N. Mayfair Road, just northwest of Mayfair Mall.

“There are offices, schools, the mall – all nearby, and we’re on a bus line, so the location seemed to work,” Nicky said.

The Wauwatosa residents moved from the Chicago area where they owned and operated their first Maxfield’s.

“I’m originally from the Wauwatosa area, and we have two daughters, so we decided to move here to be closer to family,” Nicky said. So they sold the Lombard, IL, location, which continues to operate under the same name.

The Zarmakoupises are veterans of the restaurant business. Gus learned the ropes working in Chicago restaurants; Nicky grew up in the restaurant business, as her parents owned the Capital Cafe in Brookfield and the Grecian Inn in Milwaukee.

“I’ve done everything from the ground up,” she said. Nicky, an occupational therapist who works with children in Illinois schools, has more energy than most, but, she said, “Gus is the guy. He does everything. I’m the helper. Whatever needs to be done I do.”

Open seven days a week, Maxfield’s serves breakfast and lunch.

“With closing at 4 o’clock, we can be home at night with our girls,” Nicky said of their two daughters, ages 7 and 8. 

The restaurant makes about 26 different kinds of pancakes – from cinnamon apple and chocolate chip/peanut butter to multi-grain and "health nut" pancakes made with granola, raisins and walnuts.

One of Maxfield’s signature breakfast dishes, “a Little Bit of France,” is cinnamon spiral bread dipped in egg batter, cooked to perfection and smothered in their special sauteed topping of cinnamon, apples and raisins.  French toast, omelets, waffles, blintzes, crepes are also available along with healthy breakfast options. 

For lunch, salads, burgers, sandwiches and daily specials are offered. Signature dishes are featured throughout the seven-page menu, like the California Delight made with a chicken breast topped with Monterey jack cheese, bacon and tomato on sourdough bread, or the New York strip steak sandwich made with top-quality, char-broiled strip loin topped with sauteed mushrooms served on french bread.

It may be her heritage, but for Nicky, her favorite menu item is the Greek omelet made with tomatoes, feta cheese, spinach and onions.

Everything is made fresh daily, including the homemade soups, Nicky said. “All the fruit toppings for our breakfast items are made with fresh fruit. We use fresh vegetables and squeeze our orange juice fresh, too.”

Let’s Go!

Maxfield’s Pancake House

Address: 2727 N. Mayfair Road, Wauwatosa

Phone: 414-453-6000

Hours: Open 7 days a week 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Website: Maxfieldspancakehouse.com