Despite the 2025 Town Meeting’s approval of drive-up pick-up windows, franchise owner Megan Pesce decided not to construct a pre-order pick-up window at the recently opened Dunkin’ and Jimmy John’s located at 289 Boston Post Road, the former site of Bank of America. She said her decision was due to “approval uncertainty and operational execution challenges”.
Wayland authorized a new zoning overlay district at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting (Article 20), allowing pre-order pick-up windows for fast-casual restaurants and coffee shops, targeting the Route 20 corridor. These pick-up windows, which are not traditional “drive-throughs,” require a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals and must meet specific performance standards, including, but not limited to, 300-foot separation. The Dunkin/Jimmy John’s location was originally cited as a potential site.
Pesce said that since they started planning for the Wayland site three years ago, before town meeting approval, they did not feel comfortable making plans for the pick-up window before the town’s final approval at Town Meeting. However, she talked to the architect about the window, but he said it would be difficult to retrofit a drive-through window because of the safe’s location. He said that either the safe would have to be moved, which is costly, or the layout would need to be revised. However, the biggest hurdle, Pesce said, was the franchise owner’s approval.
She said Inspire, the parent company of the Dunkin’ and Jimmy John’s chains, did not approve the pickup window because it had no operational model for just a pre-order pickup window. Although some of their other franchises have drive-through windows, which allow customers to place orders at one window and pick them up at another, Pesce said no other location has only a pre-order pick-up window. The customer would be required to place an order either through an application or make a telephone call since Wayland’s zoning by-law only allows a pick-up window.
Pesce said that Inspire did not have a training model for this process and was concerned that it would cause confusion and alienate customers. Drivers passing through town, not knowing that Wayland only allowed a pick-up window, might wait in line to place their orders, only to discover that they could not do so, she said. Wayland, she said, did not take their bylaw changes far enough. It is premature to rely on pick-up windows until customers are exclusively ordering online, she said.
Considering everything, Pesce said, she felt providing outdoor seating in the area where the drive-up window would have been located was a better option for her business. An outside dining area was recently created after the planning board approved it.
Pesce said Wayland residents have been “super supportive” of their new business, adding that both her business and Terrain will improve the aesthetic of their Route 20 area, which was previously vacant. Terrain will feature a 120-seat farm-to-table café, a 175-guest function room for weddings and private events, and approximately 13,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor retail under the Terrain brand, which focuses on garden, home and outdoor living products
Megan and Mark Pesce own over 60 Dunkin’ and Jimmy John’s stores across the state. Inspire Brands, which owns Jimmy John’s, acquired Dunkin’s in 2020. The corporation owns a number of other chains, including Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Rusty Taco, and Sonic Drive-in.
The premise behind the combined locations is to allow customers to order coffee, breakfast items, and sandwiches in one stop.
Inspire Brands, a private equity-backed company, recently filed for a U.S. initial public offering. The offering is expected to be one of the largest in restaurant industry history, with the firm seeking a valuation of roughly $20 billion, according to CNBC.
