Pace’s Village Inn has undergone a major makeover, now featuring fun, modern décor paired with fresh, from-scratch recipes that are luring customers to 4843 Highway 90.
Customers have been pouring in to taste and see the difference in the new and improved restaurant, with their scratch-made buttermilk pancakes and green tomato benedicts likely prepared by house chef, Dominick Sasso, who has helped take the old-school diner to new heights.
Sasso’s wife, Stephanie Sasso, who works as a manager and server at the Pace Village Inn, said that owner Christopher Titze’s commitment to refreshing the brand, which has been in business since 1958, was part of what lured her to invest her time into the Village Inn after managing another restaurant. Titze renovated the restaurant in sections all throughout 2025, all while keeping the restaurant open for customers and employees on the payroll throughout the extensive process.
“You (Christopher) have done everything you can now to make it perfect, and now it’s our job to get the word back out, because it’s a whole different restaurant in here,” Stephanie Sasso said. “I was right on board.”
Titze has been working in the Village Inn world for about 40 years, with his parents working for the brand for nearly his entire life, leading him to start bussing tables as soon as he turned 13. They have Village Inns all over the Tallahassee area and opened the Pace location in the early 2000s. If anyone wants to see the brand succeed, it’s him, even if it means making bold decisions to help the store’s success. The renovations were one of them.
Titze flipped the franchise’s rebrand plans on their head for the Pace store, forgoing the highly recommended neutral-toned blueprint he was given in exchange for a bright, multicolored explosion of color, staying true to Village Inn’s roots of orange, blue and grey. Now, the restaurant is brought to life with glowing, orange-lit pie cases, quirky kitchen wall art and even a Dolly Parton quote canvas.
“Corporate thought we were absolutely crazy,” Stephanie said.
“This is the only Village Inn in the country that looks like this,” Titze added. “There is no other.”
One of the dining room’s most eye-catching art displays, however, is a black-and-white photography set of iconic Pensacola area landmarks, including the Blue Angels, the University of West Florida and the Pensacola Beach beachball water tower to give the Pace store a sense of place.
“Its got kind of a small-town kind of flavor,” said restaurant regular Myles Showers.
Titze and his wife, Michelle Titze, set out to create a design of their own that they believed would fit the Pace neighborhood and propel the brand into the future. Multicolored chairs replace a surplus of crowded booths, and wood takes over where carpet once was. As it turns out, the two were right on the money, as the Pace location recently ranked in the top two for sales among the Village Inns’ approximately 100 restaurants nationwide.
Now, other franchisees are looking to Christopher Titze to try and make their stores more like the Paces.’ However, that may be hard to do, since the dining room is a hodgepodge of his or a friend’s handwork and his wife’s Pinterest finds, such as the colander chandeliers or welded rolling pin wall, that are now attracting a younger clientele, he said.
“The colander lights are her (Michelle) bringing me home a colander and telling me to ‘figure it out’ because she saw it online,” Christopher Titze teased. “The coffee cup lights are the same thing, just a matter of me messing around and trying to figure out how to get some stuff to work.”
Longtime customers Myles and Nancy Showers said the changes were just what the restaurant needed to return to its A-game.
They used to be regulars years ago, before they stopped going as they felt the restaurant’s food quality had hit a lull. However, once the renovations were wrapped up and they saw the crowds of people in the parking lot pouring in, they decided to revisit their old haunt. They didn’t regret it.
“I was totally shocked when I walked in at what they did,” Nancy Showers said.
Now, the food’s flavor, staff service, and fun environment hit all the marks for their regular spot, and Nancy swears that they have the best wheat bread in town.
Even with the flashy new changes, some things were just too good to fix, including their tried-and-true, hand-mixed buttermilk pancake recipe, which has been part of Village Inn since 1958. That and their famed pies, which became a sacred part of the Village Inn experience sometime in the ’80s, Christopher Titze said. On any given day, you can expect to find a dozen different flavors offered by the slice, such as the signature French Silk or seasonal pumpkin.
“I know some people freaked out about that,” Stephanie Sasso said regarding the pies. “We make our homemade whipped cream; we make them all here. That’s our pride and joy.”
As the holidays approach, Christopher Titze said they can expect to bring in around 1,000 orders for whole pies to fuel the community’s holiday parties.
Titze said there have been numerous changes behind the scenes to improve the restaurant’s overall quality, such as their switch from seed oils to beef tallow, the use of freshly diced potatoes in the skillets, and their new and improved turkey sausage, which took seven iterations to perfect. Now, the exterior changes are up to date with the upgrades in the food.
“I’m kind of the rebel guy. If I have or if I find a better product, then I will generally just switch. I don’t necessarily ask for permission,” Christopher Titze said.
However, one of the greatest keys to the restaurant’s success has been the people who work alongside him.
“I have good staff, and I do everything I can to keep hold of them and keep them happy. That’s really the tough part. If you’ve got a good staff, then all the rest takes care of itself.”
Stephanie Sasso added, “This is just our love story to the community. We just want to be a village to our community.”
During the month of October, Pace’s Village Inn will also be selling “Stack Up Against Cancer” T-shirts and made-from-scratch pink strawberry pancakes, with part of the proceeds benefitting the Pensacola Breast Cancer Association.
Ready to see the changes for yourself? Here are four must-try menu items:
For real-time updates and information, follow Village Inn Pace on social media.
Hungry for more? Stay updated on the latest restaurant news by subscribing to our free Pensacola Eats newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign up for the newsletter at profile.pnj.com/newsletters/Pensacola-eats/.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: ‘The only Village Inn in the country that looks like this’: Pace eatery reinvents itself
Reporting by Brittany Misencik, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
