MIDLOTHIAN, Va. (WRIC) — Maple Street Biscuit Company, a breakfast chain that got its start in Florida nearly 10 years ago and is now in nine states, has opened its second Virginia location in Midlothian.

The doors to the new Maple Street Biscuit Co. in the Huguenot Village Shopping Center in Midlothian opened to customers at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Jackie Doores, the community leader of the Midlothian location, said people have been looking forward to the grand opening for some time.

“We’ve had people lined at our doors for weeks trying to figure out when we were going to get open,” she said. “After a few construction delays that kind of put us behind schedule than we thought, we had a lot of excited faces coming in at 7 a.m.”

The welcome board outside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)

The success of the first Maple Street in Virginia, located in Short Pump in Henrico County, led to plans for a second location in the Richmond area, Doores said. She also shared that there were several requests for a Maple Street in the Midlothian area after the Short Pump opening.

“We’re always looking for more communities to join. We want to see where we can make the most impact when we join an area,” Doores said Tuesday. “We are all about taking care of the community that we’re in. We always want to be a benefit to them.”

Maple Street tries to stay in touch with the community through work with local church groups, youth groups and volunteering as a group, Doores explained. But as the store’s community leader, Doores was tasked with building ties with locals before Tuesday’s opening.

“Getting to connect with the community before we were even open was amazing. We are big on word of mouth, we don’t really do a lot of paid commercials, radio ads and things like that,” she said. “I went around to local schools, all the businesses in this area, I participated in a bunch of Facebook groups that I know local people are in.”

Outside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)

Maple Street Biscuit Co., which opened its first location in Jacksonville in September 2012, has continued to grow since being acquired by Cracker Barrel in 2019 for $36 million.

At that point, there were “28 company-owned and five franchised fast casual locations across seven states.” Now, there are Maple Street stores in nine Southern states and Doores told 8News that the Midlothian location is the 50th in the country.

Maple Street’s website says it follows four guiding principles: comfort food with a modern twist, gracious service, immaculately clean stores and sustainable business.

Doores says she believes Maple Street sets itself apart in various ways, citing its freshly made food and customer service. Maple Street makes its biscuits, gravies, jams and more from scratch, has freshly squeezed orange juice and also makes its coffee at its roasting house in Jacksonville.

“I feel that this community store is a bit different than other places you can eat at because it’s always going to be a warm welcome, we’re going to have fresh food, fast all the time,” Doores told 8News. “We’re here to take care of more than just the guests in the store.”

PHOTO GALLERY

  • Maple Street Biscuit Company
    Inside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)
  • Inside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)
  • Inside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)
  • Inside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)
  • Inside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)
  • Inside the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)
  • The outside patio area for the Maple Street Biscuit Company in Midlothian. (Photo: Dean Mirshahi)