Longtime Clark icon Annie Jenkins retires from Annie's Clark Brunch, receives key to city

WORCESTER — With a restaurant that was overflowing with former customers like an overpoured cup of coffee, Annie Jenkins gave a tearful goodbye to the diner that she has been working at for nearly four decades.

Jenkins has been a part of the fabric of Main South since 1986, first getting a job as a waitress at Wendy's Clark Brunch, and then eventually taking over as owner of the property in 1993 and renaming the restaurant Annie's Clark Brunch.

"I got divorced and moved (into the neighborhood) and a friend of mine had the establishment then and they needed a waitress," Jenkins said. "That is how it started, and six years later I bought it."

On Tuesday, Jenkins retired from the restaurant in front of an overflow crowd of former customers, city officials and current and former employees.

"The best thing on the menu is anything she makes," Monsignor Francis Scolen, a regular customer and a retired priest from St. Peter Catholic Church, located across the street from Annie's, said. "It's going to be very different without having her around. She is outspoken, she gives her opinions and she just knows everybody. When people have passed away she attends the funerals, it is very personal."

Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty, along with Clark University President David Fithian and District Councilor Luis Ojeda, among other luminaries, appeared to grant Jenkins an official key to the city she has helped fuel for nearly 40 years.

"Annie has been serving us for 37 years, many a time I've gotten my eggs here on Saturday morning," Petty said. "I want to congratulate you — it's not just about the eggs, it is being part of the community."

"A lot of beginnings started here. Annie and her family have been a staple, and so many conversations have been had here. I have brought my basketball teams here to have conversations with captains," Ojeda said. "Relationships and families have started here. Just to look around and see everyone around for you is amazing. I'm sure if we had more room, there would be even more people in here."

Jenkins originally retired in 2022, closing the restaurant as she said she was tired of working 15-hour shifts that begin before the sun rises. However, after the restaurant closed, Clark University, which owns the building at 934 Main St. where Annie's is located, decided to run the restaurant as part of the campus dining operation, and Jenkins was brought in to continue running the diner.

"From the time she first began running the diner, Annie craved the kind of neighborhood place where the only thing warmer than the welcome was the chili. She greeted customers by name, remembered favored orders, knew who could take a joke and who didn't mind language that was saltier than the bacon," Fithian said. "For so many students at Clark who have come here to Worcester, walking through that door has been the closest thing to being home."

Jenkins has a special bond with the Clark students, who she was regularly known to give breaks to if they were short on cash, always banking on the kindness being returned one day. In 2015, when the diner was in need of an expensive series of kitchen upgrades, a Clark-alumni effort helped fundraise to purchase the equipment.

"The Clark alumni have always come through," Jenkins said. "Clark took over the restaurant and I got to run things and didn't have to pay the bills anymore."

Now Jenkins is stepping away for good, with an army of well-wishers seeing her out the door. Jenkins, who had never worked in a restaurant before she stepped foot in the diner in 1986, said it was the social atmosphere that made the job something she looked forward to.

"It is being around the people, I'm a daytime bartender," Jenkins said. "People don't understand, people are watching you cook, they are seeing everything. It's just neighborhood friendly, honey."

While Jenkins is retiring, the diner will continue operating under the management of Clark University, and Fithian said that customers shouldn't expect a name change anytime soon.

"We are operating the restaurant and we are going to keep it going. For as long as we are involved, Annie's name will stay above the restaurant," Fithian said.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Longtime Clark icon Annie Jenkins retires from Annie's Clark Brunch, receives key to city