ROCKPORT — For months, we've driven by the plastic-cocooned building that formerly housed Denny's Restaurant, and wondering what its next evolution was to be. Now we know. The restaurant will be called Walker’s and its goal is to be a warm, family-style restaurant steeped in the history of the name it carries.

Ken DePasquale, of Downeast Development, is one of the managing partners of Walker’s. He lives in Ocala, Florida, and is from Long Island, New York. He explained how the restaurant came to be.

Joe Cloutier, of Realty Resources, operated a Denny's Restaurant on the site at 1075 Commercial Street (Route 1) at two different times during the past two decades.

DePasquale said Cloutier is one of the partners of Walker’s.

"We've been friends for over 20 years," he said. "He has seen and toured many of my restaurants in South and North Central Florida. We've been trying to do a project together for that long. When he first built the building for a Denny's I tried to acquire the building, but he wanted to run it as a Denny's."

DePasquale said it was decided the building needed to be renovated from top to bottom.

"I made a presentation to him on a concept he liked," he said. "He bought into it and I bought into him, and we put a partnership together.

Remember Cody's Original Roadhouse, that short-lived steakhouse further north on Commercial Street Rockport? That was a DePasquale project.

DePasquale said that part of creating a restaurant is creating value. Denny's had lost its value, he said.

"The franchise had expired,” he said. "My role as a restaurateur was to create a concept that would work here in this community, on this site and would displace anything that Denny's represented.”

DePasquale said they started working with the historical archives in Camden, but moved to Rockport.

"I originally thought of Camden's notoriety, over Rockport's notoriety, and it might be advantageous for me to use Camden as a backdrop," he said. "As powerful as it is, it didn't represent what I wanted, so I switched to Rockport."

DePasquale said that's when they brought Richard Eaton on board.

"Richard Eaton was born and raised in Rockport," he said. "He was born at the Walker's farmstead that was the original home of the Walkers. Richard was kind enough to go into the Walker achives and found hundreds and hundreds of pictures."

Eaton, executive chef at Walker’s, is a trained chef educated at Johnson and Wales. The restaurant decor will include original Walker family photos and artifacts from the farmstead. He is also the great- great-grandchild of the Walkers.

Eaton said the food will represent old-fashioned home cooking, like going to grandma's house for dinner.

“Roast turkey dinners made with whole roasted turkeys, not just breast," he said. "Finnan-haddock chowder, old fashioned pot roast and meatloaf, and all of it good Maine fare."

Eaton said the atmosphere, good food and service, and historical reference will keep people coming back.

"When people walk in the back door they stop and spend 10 minutes walking down the hallway looking at all the old pictures, especially people from the area that recognize a lot of these places," he said. "That will be the first draw and the food will be the second draw. You're getting to a point where restaurants like this don't exist anymore, ones that serve old-fashioned dinners."

DePasquale has either owned, operated, managed, designed, financed, developed, or consulted over the past 35 years for restaurants, cafes, hotels, motels, country clubs, resorts, and other select businesses.

"The Walker farmstead was also a bed and breakfast," DePasquale said. "From Belfast to Wiscasset, they were known for their food. We reviewed all the recipes and some we can use and some we can't. With those and others we created just for Walkers, we have created a true, native Maine-style restaurant. We are about as far from a chain as you can get."

There will also be a children's menu, which DePasquale said was created with the involvement of a 9-year-old.

He then added, as a bit of history, that the first female executive chef at the Samoset Resort was a Walker.

DePasquale said the restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Janet Marston, from the former Sail Loft Restaurant, will be the sous chef. A sous chef de cuisine (French for "under-chef of the kitchen") is a chef who is the second in command in a kitchen, after the head chef.

DePasquale said the restaurant will open after Mother's Day.

"We're here for the long haul," he said. "I'm in a hurry to get things open, but I wouldn't dare open right before Mother's Day. That's the busiest day of the year. I'm slow and steady. I look forward to being here."

DePasquale said there are special plans for the outside deck.

"It will be very similar to our lobster, clam chowder, New England kind of setting outside," he said. "Picnic tables. We'll serve lobsters, but that's not our primary menu, we're not in the lobster business. We have a hundred yards on Route 1 and it's one of the best sites that has never been appreciated; but, it will be now."

DePasquale said all the things they did were about Maine. The colors, the style, the decorations and the windows are all about Maine.

"This all about good food, good service, ambiance, atmosphere, soft music and talented people," he said. "We'll employ 35 to 40 people. We are very selective in our hiring practices. There will be a full bar and you can eat at the bar and we'll have a happy hour seven days a week."