{"id":187562,"date":"2014-12-18T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=187562"},"modified":"2014-12-18T04:00:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T18:00:13","slug":"winchells-celebrates-grand-opening-new-location-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/winchells-celebrates-grand-opening-new-location-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Winchell\u2019s celebrates grand opening of new location today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Long-time<\/a>
Long-time Winchell\u2019s employees and staff, from right, Lilein Boaz, operations manager Laidy Ignacio, and store manager Boboy Borja pose for a photo at their new location in Garapan yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nWinchell\u2019s celebrates the grand opening of its new location today, right at the corner of Coral Tree Avenue or the former Remington Hotel. The grand opening will start at 4pm today with a blessing ceremony and a small party for its vendors. A Christmas party for its employees will follow.<\/p>\n

Operations manager Laidy Ignacio would like to thank the community for its undying support over the nearly the 30 years Winchell\u2019s has been operating on Saipan and Guam. They first opened shop on Saipan in 1987, according to her.<\/p>\n

Ignacio has been with the donut and coffee shop for 27 years. Starting as a clerk, she moved up to become supervisor, and then store manager, and then operations manager for both Winchell\u2019s locations on island.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t all been easy,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I enjoy what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the community enjoys her work, too. With the hot coffee, clam chowder, and dozens of donuts it has to offer, children, couples, tourists, and whole families have come to appreciate what the modest coffee shop has had to offer since 1987.<\/p>\n

The long-time Winchell\u2019s employee even noticed the face of this reporter. \u201cOh, you\u2019re Norman\u2019s son!\u201d she said. She joked that she\u2019d still be around when I eventually bring my own kids, too.<\/p>\n

Winchell\u2019s president Jay Noble first opened \u201cBugler Winchell,\u201d a coffee and donut shop in Tokyo, Japan in the early \u201980s, Ignacio said. But the shop could not make much business and closed, she added.<\/p>\n

Noble then tried his luck in Guam and Saipan, and the shops have remained in the islands since then. \u201cI remember some other donut shops that have started before,\u201d Ignacio said. \u201cBut Winchell\u2019s is still here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described the shop as the \u201cpioneer for donuts\u201d in the islands.<\/p>\n

The shop is also expected to have new additions to their menu soon. <\/p>\n

\u201cKeep posted,\u201d operations consultant Margerie Acebedo said to all Winchell\u2019s patrons out there. \u201cBe looking out for our new products coming up next year. We\u2019ll have new drinks and new value combos to captivate all our all our cultures on island.\u201d<\/p>\n

This would add to the bento boxes, sub sandwiches, bagels, pandesal, muffins, soups, coffee drinks, and donuts they already offer.<\/p>\n

Ignacio maintained that while they saw that their new location could provide better exposure for lighting and tourists, Winchell\u2019s is still a family location.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want locals to be our main priority,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The new Winchell\u2019s features a more comfy and spacious design, she said, and enjoys a fair amount of sun. With their accommodating staff, she said, she hopes to meet the community for their donuts and coffee needs for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winchell\u2019s celebrates the grand opening of its new location today, right at the corner of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":187613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[51,170,223,545],"class_list":["post-187562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-guam","tag-japan","tag-party","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}