Jeffrey Dunham did a lot of construction when he was chef/owner of The Grove Grill. But he was using ingredients you could eat. Like meat and fish.
Now, he’s constructing things with ingredients you wouldn’t eat. Like wood and paint.
For the past six months, Dunham, who closed The Grove Grill in 2020, has been working on woodworking, plumbing, and painting jobs with his buddy Ben Homolka of Quality Painting. He’s also been looking for places to eat lunch under $10.
“Most of his business is out in the Cordova-Bartlett area,” Dunham says. “So, every day it’s lunchtime and he likes to sit down and eat, so we just started going out to eat.”
It wasn’t anything planned days in advance. “It was just, ‘Okay. Let’s go get lunch.’ And you take a break and get in the car. ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know. Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know. Where do you want to go?’”
Dunham says, “Being an interested observer in the restaurant business and industry, I started evaluating these places. With inflation and all the cost pressures that restaurants have, it’s tough to keep your prices down. As a customer, it’s quite a lot to go out and eat a $20 lunch every day.”
Dunham began looking for lunches under $10. And he found them. “I don’t know if I consider it a challenge. It’s not necessarily a budgetary motivation, but it’s fun to find places like that. Especially independents.”
He was happily surprised to find a great deal at TJ Mulligan’s. “You get two fried pork chops, a couple of sides, and a couple of rolls. And it’s a well-prepared, quality product.”
Dunham said, “Wow. Look at this. I can’t believe this is such a reasonable price.”
The pork chops were a half to three-quarters of an inch thick. They were seasoned with flour and maybe a little cornstarch because “there was some crispness to it.”
Dunham changes up his sides, which include a spinach casserole. “Their rolls are very good, as well. But, yeah, it’s just a well-done meat-and-three kind of meal.”
Dunham discovered another lunch under $10 at My Favorite Place. “It’s a Hispanic restaurant,” says Dunham, who’s known the owner Dennis Zamora for a long time.”
Dunham ordered one chile relleno for $9.99. “I love my grandma’s. She used to make them for me.”
The ones at My Favorite Place also are great, Dunham says. “They are roasted poblano chilis stuffed with cheese and typically pan-fried in an egg white batter.”
It has a “rich chili tomato sauce” on top, he says.
Dunham also likes the chili seasoning on top of the chips. “Then just a simple fresh picante salsa, which is, again, great.
“Everything I had over there is always on point,” he adds.
Waldo’s Chicken & Beer is another lunch favorite. “You can get three chicken tenders for $9.99.”
The tenders come with fresh hand-cut fries and a drink. “They have several cases of potatoes in the dining room.”
And, he says, “Their fried chicken is solid.”
Dunham was pleasantly surprised when he discovered Abbay’s. He thought it was a chain until he learned it was locally owned. “They’ve been going at it for a long time.”
“You can have chicken-fried steak and a side for under 10 bucks,” he says. “Apparently, a lot of folks in the area come and get their sides for the holidays.”
Dunham can see where Abbay’s could have been designed as a chain restaurant. “It’s set up like that. You order and it’s ready in five minutes. Again, good side, good center of the plate, and great rolls. It’s a classic meat-and-three. Bookend meat-and-threes here with Abbay’s and TJ Mulligan’s.”
In addition to local eating spots, Dunham says they’ve tried “some chain places that are solid for $10.”
Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of them. “You can get three tacos that are enormous for $10. I generally eat just two of them and maybe have another one in the afternoon.”
Serving lunch under $10 isn’t difficult, Dunham says. “Lunches are not all that expensive. But it costs more money to do some things. They are trying to achieve a price point and selling that price point. At every one of the restaurants you go into, you can always get something more expensive: ‘Let me have the hamburger and onion rings.’ All of a sudden you spend $15. The ultimate objective is revenue. And sustainable revenue.”
Asked why he closed The Grove Grill, which he opened in 1997, Dunham says, “It shut down for Covid and we just never reopened.”
Dunham was one of the owners of Magnolia & May with his son Chip and daughter-in-law Amanda until Chip bought him out. Jeffrey also did a lot of the physical work on the restaurant before it opened, including knocking out a wall and putting in a bar. He and Chip built all the tables and chairs.
Construction isn’t something new to Jeffrey. “When I was a kid, I worked for a contractor. But that was a long time ago.”
He also worked on his grandfather’s ranch. “Whatever we needed to do.”
The only similarity between construction work and cooking is maybe the “prep work.” Like sanding the walls before painting, which is akin to cleaning a case of Brussels sprouts before cooking them.
Jeffrey still cooks elaborate meals from time to time. He and his wife Tracey recently drove to Jasper, Alabama, where he prepared a “Chamber of Commerce sit-down dinner for 30” for a good friend. “Tracey and I joked about how it wouldn’t be the Christmas season if we didn’t have at least one 40 top.”
By the way, customers could eat for under $10 at one point at The Grove Grill. “When we first opened, our hamburger was $9.13 But, as a rule, most of our stuff was over 10 bucks.”
