By Kyle Coppola
The Toast Café Set to Replace Rae Rae’s in Fruitland Park
Great news for fans of the former Rae Raes restaurant in Fruitland Park, a brand-new local family-owned restaurant will be opening its doors in early January. The Toast Café is set to replace the former Rae Rae’s which closed last year.
The new owners Leandrea and Chris Gentry live in The Villages. They recently relocated to from Indiana where they had lived most of their lives. In fact, Chris owned a Vacuum store in Indiana for over 25 years and owned The Toast Café in Indiana for the past 18 years before moving to Florida.
(The new owners of the former Rae Rae’s Restaraunt now called The Toast Cafe. Chris Gentry right and his wife Leandra Gentry left have nearly 20 years in the food industry. They owned The Toast Cafe in Indiana which they sold when they moved to The Villages. Now they look to bring the former Rae Rae’s back to it’s glory days as The Toast Cafe.)
Since moving to Florida, the two started up Gentry Vacuums Plus which is located in the Best Buy Plaza in Lady Lake. The store sells a variety of household item needs and is a locally owned business so be sure to support them if you can.
The Toast Café became synonymous with local Villages residents and snow birds living in Indiana. The restaurant was popular and gained a reputation for the attention to detail that the Gentry’s are known for.
(Delicious breakfast foods and specials will be on the menu when The Toast Cafe opens in Early January. Photo Credit “The Toast Cafe.”)
The new restaurant will offer breakfast items such as Omelets, bacon and eggs, along with some delicious specials which will be delightful for those who enjoyed Rae Rae’s during its heyday.
Renovations are currently ongoing. Chris Gentry told us that “We are repainting the interior, adding new flooring, updating the kitchen and replacing the windows. We are also in the process of getting a new sign put on the building.”
(The old Rae Rae’s sign will soon be gone forever. Rae Rae’s was once one of the most popular breakfast establishments in Fruitland Park.)
Gentry was very excited about opening in this location. “I am looking at an early January opening but the thing I want everyone to know is that I am going to do this right. I want people to have an amazing experience at The Toast Café and look forward to welcoming everyone.”
Toast Café will be hiring in the coming week for Cooks, Servers, and dishwashers so if you know someone who might need a job be sure to pass the information along. You can contact Chris Gentry at 765-356-2838.
(The Original Toast Cafe located in Indiana. The original location is under new ownership. The restaraunt was so popular, it has a cult following of sorts. Many people who live in The Villages and snowbirds alike know about The Toast Cafe especially residents who lived in Inidana.)
Fans of the former Rae Rae’s will be happy to have a brand-new exciting restaurant location to try out. We are all about supporting locally owned business. We wish the Gentry family nothing but success and look forward to their early January opening.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
