• Melissa Pasanen ©️ Seven Days
• Andrew Machanic and Wendy Piotrowski with their son, Waylon

A new incarnation of shuttered Burlington breakfast-and-lunch spot the Swingin' Pinwheel is coming to Essex. Wendy Piotrowski and Andrew Machanic said they hope to open their new Pinwheel restaurant in early November at 4 Carmichael Street in the space vacated when Cody's Irish Pub & Grille closed in March.

The married couple said the Pinwheel will serve many classics from their original restaurant, which operated downtown on Center Street from 2014 to 2021. The understated spot became a favorite breakfast destination for its popovers, plate-size hash browns, pinwheel-shaped pastries, cowboy coffee and flaky "wafflinis."

"We thought it was gone forever," Machanic said of the Swingin' Pinwheel. "But the menu was calling to be cooked again."

The couple is currently renovating the 75-seat restaurant, which will boast a new bar and countertops made with white pine from their Essex Junction backyard. Machanic, 56, said the Pinwheel will have an expanded lunch menu, including more hot sandwiches and possibly a burger. Piotrowski, 41, added that it will be designed to operate with minimal staff. "We know we need to work with the climate we're in," she said.

After closing the Swingin' Pinwheel in search of better work-life balance, the couple ran the Sweet Wheels Donuts bus from 2021 to 2023, when they started looking for a restaurant space near their home.

Machanic, a career chef and New England Culinary Institute grad, told Seven Days in 2022 that "You can take the chef out of the restaurant, but you can't take the restaurant out of the chef."