Grumpy’s Restaurant, featured in “Grumpy's announces opening date for new location, the first franchise for the brand” on the Jacksonville Business Journal.
By: Alex Wilson, Reporter Business Journal Jul 02, 2020
The second location of a longstanding Orange Park restaurant is set to open in October, marking the first franchise for the concept.
Grumpy’s Restaurant, owned by Daniel and Morgan DeLeon, is preparing to open its newest location in Middleburg at 1805 Blanding Blvd., with the store owned and operated by Dell Hoard.
“I really believe in the franchise model,” Daniel DeLeon said. “My vision in franchising is a little bit different than the old school approach, where you have one representative for 5,000 stores and you really don’t do much on a day-to-day or an ongoing basis. We actually believe in the opposite, where we should be a lot more hands on and really helping in the day-to-day and hand-to-hand assistance in the operation. I think doing that really helps solidify the success and the legitimacy of the brand.”
DeLeon said he decided to develop this approach after reflecting on his experience with franchises with other companies, including Restaurant Brands Internationals – a company which oversees brands such as Tim Hortons, Burger King and Popeyes — where DeLeon was manager of franchise performance.
“When I was involved in the brands, or even when I was on the franchisor side with RBI…I could have at any given time have 500 or 1,000 restaurants,” DeLeon said. “Mathematically, it just doesn’t work, I can’t give them even one day a year of my personal attention or time. Here, I really I want to be able to touch everyone, be every and have enough representatives to really give that support.”
DeLeon announced Grumpy’s intent to expand in early 2019, just two years after purchasing the Orange Park eatery. Since then, he said the company has continued to position itself to prepare for that expansion.
“I’m just super excited to be growing – so much has gone into this development [of Grumpy’s] for the two years since I purchased it,” DeLeon said. “Everything we’ve done has been setting us up for replication, and it’s been a long process. But, finally, we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Middleburg location will have about 2,600 square feet of interior space, seat around 102 people and employ a staff of approximately 40 people. It's slated to open on Oct. 5.
A third location for the brand isn't far behind, with a store planned for the Fountains at St. Johns with an anticipated opening in the first quarter of 2021.
The Middleburg lease was actually signed after the Fountains location – which was initially planned to open in mid- or late-2020 – but DeLeon said a variety of factors led to delays, including the nature of the Fountains buildout and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“They [the Fountains] went from literally the ground up – it was more a forest-type site – and they had to do all the infrastructure and the slab,” DeLeon said. “We’ll be able to put a firm date on it in a month or two. With Covid and stuff, it’s really hard to put a date on anything.”
Similar to Middleburg, albeit slightly larger, the Fountains location is a 2,700-square-foot building, with an outdoor seating area and an 11-foot covered entry way. The restaurant will feature approximately 106 seats and will employ between 40 and 45 staff members.
Grumpy’s, which opened in 1999, has long been a visible fixture of Kingsley Road. After ownership exchanged hands several times, the DeLeons purchased it in 2017.
“It was always a part of the plan to expand,” said DeLeon in a previous interview with the Business Journal. “We knew we had a really good niche in our industry.”
That niche, according to the DeLeons, is serving “working-class portions at a working-class price.” Maintaining that approach, Vice President Morgan DeLeon said, all comes down to customer service.
“Our clientele are 50 percent regulars that come in three or four times a week,” she said. “I want to maintain the same level of customer service and make people feel at home when they come to see us.”
The restaurant has received multiple accolades in recent years, with the most recent being “Best Breakfast” and “Best American Restaurant” in Clay County by Folio Magazine and ranked third for the extra small category in the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 2019 “Best Places to Work.”
For more information, visit: www.GrumpysRestaurantCo.com/Grumpys-Blog
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