By Don Coble, don@claytodayonline.com<\/p>\n
FLEMING ISLAND \u2013 The father-son duo of Dell Hoard Sr. and Jr. knew they were creating something special when they changed the sign from Dick\u2019s Wings to a Grumpy\u2019s temporary banner on the corner of East-West Parkway and U.S. Highway 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crazy thing, we’re out there putting it up, [and] people are honking, high five and thumbs up. It was really cool. That was awesome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rarely has there been such anticipation for a restaurant to open. Then again, Grumpy\u2019s Restaurant is a rare find.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The restaurants in Orange Park and Middleburg have been voted Best of Clay for breakfast and brunch for eight consecutive years, while it\u2019s been voted as the Bold City Best for nine years in a row in Jacksonville. When the Hoards, who also own the Middleburg store, decided to expand to Fleming Island, it was hailed with considerable anticipation. Work on the overhaul of the former Dick\u2019s Wings has taken all summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hopeful opening date for early summer was pushed back several times, but Hoard Sr. said they expect to start offering food from \u201cthe bad mood dude,\u201d on Monday, Oct. 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eager \u2013 and hungry \u2013 customers will quickly notice changes from the customary restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Fleming Island location will have 17 tables and 13 booths in the main restaurant, and it can accommodate between 20-and-30 in a party room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also will have a game room where children can play for free, as well as a full bar. That\u2019s right, a full bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still going to close at 2 p.m.,\u201d Hoard Jr. said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be selling a lot of specialty drinks like Mimosas and Bloody Marys. \u201cThe other stores seat 107. Counting the party room, we can be pushing anywhere from, you know, 170 to 190 in here. Having that party room that seats 20 to 30 people, that is going to be so big.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect that to be full, especially Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but hopefully all throughout the week. We want to try to get different groups, church groups, whatever groups, like car groups coming in in the morning, having their gatherings in that place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new location also has larger restrooms. Customary Grumpy\u2019s have one stall for men and women. The Fleming Island store will have four in each restroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard to turn down a spot like this,\u201d Hoard Jr. said. \u201cThis is just a much bigger store. It’s going to be a lot more to handle, but we’re up to it, especially since we\u2019ve had years at Middleburg to get ready for this. So, we’re pretty prepared.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And everyone can still pick from some of Grumpy\u2019s classics. In addition to daily specials, Grumpy\u2019s is known for its super-sized breakfast specials like two eggs, two pancakes, bacon, sausage links or patties, a choice of grits, hash browns or home fries and a drink.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other popular dishes include pancakes; a patriotic red, white and blue waffle made with strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream; giant omelets; an assortment of eggs Benedict dishes; meatloaf and turkey plates; country fried steak; chicken pot pie; chicken and waffles; burgers; hot sandwiches; and their fresh-squeezed orange juice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Grumpy\u2019s brand has become so synonymous with Clay County diners, it rallied around the Hoards and its employees when the Middleburg location was closed on Jan. 19, 2022, after a fire swept through the restaurant. The next day, Sheriff Michelle Cook offered one of her staff training rooms across the street at the Middleburg substation for an impromptu staff meeting. The Middleburg Chick-fil-A delivered sandwiches and drinks to employees and stores like Walmart donated thousands of dollars of materials to the store and its employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chick-fil-A also changed its marquee along Blanding Boulevard. And like the temporary sign in front of the new Grumpy\u2019s on Fleming Island, residents honked and gave a thumbs up when they read, \u201cGrumpy\u2019s strong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Don Coble, don@claytodayonline.com FLEMING ISLAND \u2013 The father-son duo of Dell Hoard Sr. and Jr. knew they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3496,3487,3495,3498,3488,3493,116,118,117,3492,3494,3499,3490,3489,3497,3491],"class_list":["post-409804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-argyle","tag-clay-county","tag-doctors-inlet","tag-eagle-harbor","tag-fleming-island","tag-green-cove-springs","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-keystone-heights","tag-lake-asbury","tag-margaret","tag-middleburg","tag-orange-park","tag-pace-island","tag-penney-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}