Athol couple becomes new owners of Templeton Café & Pub

TEMPLETON – When Athol couple Jeffrey and Denise Raymond retired, instead of embarking on a nice cruise, they decided to take on the responsibility of owning and operating a restaurant.

The Raymonds are now the owners of the Templeton Café & Pub, located at 119 Patriots Road/Route 2A in East Templeton. The café officially opened under the Raymonds on Feb. 2.

“My wife is a retired nurse and I’m a retired firefighter,” Jeffrey Raymond said, “and my wife has always wanted to do a restaurant. Every since she was young, she’s wanted to run a restaurant.”

“I’ve been talking about it for 33 years,” Denise Raymond said. “Every time I saw something come up for sale, I would tell Jeff, ‘Oh, look. We could do this, we could do that.’ And then the idea would fizzle out. Our kids were young. Finally, now that we’re retired, he asked me, ‘Do you still want to do it?’”

Jeffrey Raymond explained the couple decided it would be better to spend their retirement years staying active. He said they first looked at buying the former White Cloud restaurant in Orange.

“We looked at reopening that as a really nice restaurant, but things just didn’t work out,” said Jeffrey Raymond of the White Cloud. “So, we started negotiations for this spot (Templeton Café) and we came to an agreement with the owner, John Buckley. I will tell you John has been phenomenal. He has been helping us and relating his experiences over the years. He’s really been a huge help on guiding us and keeping a business model that has been working for him.”

Previously, the site of the café was home to Olsen’s. The popular eatery, established by Norwegian immigrant Ole Olsen, opened its doors in 1947 and remained in the family until 2006. The building sat vacant for about five years before reopening as JK Crossroads under the ownership of Tom O’Brien. In 2024, O’Brien sold the establishment to John and Cherie Buckley, who transferred ownership to the Raymonds earlier this year.

Jeffrey explained that he and Denise decided to maintain current business model of being open just for breakfast and lunch.

“It had been tried to open at night for supper, but it just didn’t have the volume to justify the expense,” he said.

After closing at 1 p.m., Jeffrey Raymond said, the restaurant will be available to host receptions for weddings, graduations, funerals, birthdays and other events. He added that the café has a full liquor license.

“The customers seem really excited about things,” he said. “They love the food, they love the atmosphere….They don’t want to feel rushed, they want to come in where it’s more of a restaurant feel where they can relax. We also pride ourselves on cleanliness.”

The Raymonds have nothing but positive reviews for their chef, with Denise saying she makes the best corned beef hash.

“Her soups are to die for,” said Jeffrey Raymond. “She is a phenomenal cook. We want to separate ourselves from other places by offering the freshest food possible.”

Asked about a relationship with local farms, he added, “If we can get things locally, we’re going to do that. Our goal is to support local people.”

“I want people to know that when they come here, they’ll get a very good meal,” said Denise Raymond, “that they’ll find a relaxing atmosphere; we want them to feel at home.”

The Templeton Café & Pub is open six days a week from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is closed on Tuesdays.