Once on the brink of closure, Grumpy's is thriving, opening restaurants across the Jacksonville area. Meet the couple behind it.

ORANGE PARK | Daniel and Morgan DeLeon have done what some might say definitely defies the odds.

The husband-and-wife restaurateurs transformed an aging, broken-down diner on the brink of closing permanently into a successful business with a growing footprint in the Jacksonville area with plans to expand beyond Northeast Florida.

Since the DeLeons bought the original Grumpy's Restaurant in Orange Park four years ago, the diner has thrived despite the COVID-19 pandemic with its continuing challenges of rising food costs, supply chain disruptions and staff shortages.

"Grumpy’s Restaurant was born out of passion and love for bringing family and friends together over great diner food, and we take that very seriously,” DeLeon, president and CEO, said of the landmark Orange Park restaurant.

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The couple restored Grumpy's reputation for serving ample portions of fresh, made-from-scratch breakfast and lunch fare, such as biscuits and gravy, omelettes, pancakes, waffles, shrimp and grits, burgers and meatloaf — all at affordable, family-friendly prices.

Their menu of homestyle American and Southern diner mainstays along with seafood, a steak omelette and other specials has proven to be a recipe for success for Grumpy's widely known as the "Home of the Bad Mood Dude" cranky-looking chef mascot and logo.

"We are committed to serving a working person's portion at a working-class price," DeLeon said. "Our goal is quality over quantity."

He said they work to stay true to the tastes of their clientele who prefer old-school, homestyle meals like their grandmother made for them.

So far, Grumpy's has three restaurants open: the flagship diner at 834 Kingsley Ave. in Orange Park and 1805 Blanding Blvd. in Middleburg, both in Clay County; and 155 Fountain Way in northern St. Johns County.

Each store will do over $2.5 million in sales individually this year, DeLeon said, noting they typically do much more.

Grumpy's has been able to grow during the pandemic. The Middleburg location opened during the first phase of the pandemic and St. Johns opened in the second phase.

More Grumpy's are on the way.

DeLeon said two new franchises should open by the end of 2022, including Grumpy's at the Crossings at Wildlight in Yulee in May followed by a Grumpy's in the World Golf Village area a few months later.

DeLeon said they're scouting out other possible locations in Jacksonville.

"We haven't found that great location yet," he said. "The good locations haven't become available as quick as we would like them. We are looking at and working on a location in Duval County but we'll see what happens. It's really strictly location-dependent."

Many of the best locations in Jacksonville already are developed. So he's looking at new developments.

"We would love to be in the Julington Creek area, the Beaches and the area along Beach Boulevard. But right now, we're strapped on locations," DeLeon said. "We also need to be at a quality price point on the rental rate with landlords because we don't have that high ticket average."

For now, Grumpy's is focused on Northeast Florida although there are "some other prospects in the pipeline."

"We love the Northeast Florida market … We think we can open stores within a two-hour driving range," he said. "There are a lot of great locations so we really haven't been focused on anything further than that at the moment."

Unlike large corporations, Grumpy's doesn't have the pressure to open new stores to generate cash flow, he said.

Ideally, he'd like to open two or three new stores a year. But if it's just one and "it's a quality location with a quality operator, then they're very happy with that," he said.

"Taking it five years out, we'd like to have a minimum of 10 stores open. Ten years out, we'd like to have 25 stores open," said DeLeon, who has extensive experience as a franchiser and restaurateur.

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Diamond in the rough

When the DeLeons bought Grumpy's in November 2017, the restaurant was on its last legs.

Founded in 1999, the diner had changed hands several times and undergone multiple concepts over the years. The last owner wanted to make Grumpy's a French bistro-style restaurant.

Once an Orange Park icon with a loyal following, it had gone downhill over the years.

The quality of the food was inconsistent — fluctuating between poor to mediocre. The building was in disrepair and deteriorating. The kitchen equipment was outdated. Staff turnover was high. There were no written recipes. Customers were scarce, and all too often, few came back for another meal.

But the DeLeons saw its potential. They repaired and renovated the building, overhauled the menu and rekindled Grumpy's original guiding principle of serving good food at fair prices so "no one leaves grumpy."

The couple upgraded every menu item from the quality of the bacon to fresh hash browns. Everything was made fresh to order. It wasn't long before longtime customers returned to the dining room and they brought their friends and neighbors with them.

"We felt with the Orange Park market, people wanted Grumpy's to be great again," he said. "They wanted everything as good as they had experienced a long time ago for breakfast and lunch."

How they did it

DeLeon, 35, is a 14-year veteran of the restaurant and franchising business. Before Grumpy's he owned and operated multiple franchise concepts as well as grew a half-dozen local and diverse businesses from the ground up.

He was the first franchise owner of Metro Diner — now a competitor — when it began as a family-owned restaurant before it ultimately went corporate and expanded nationwide. During his nearly six years with Metro Diner, he grew two locations from the ground up. He also previously owned a Pita Pit USA franchise, according to his Linkedin.com profile.

The Clay County native also worked as a franchise representative for Restaurant Brands International (RBI) — one of the world's largest quick-service restaurant companies.

RBI last month bought Firehouse Subs with its 1,200 sandwich shops for $1 billion, bringing the Jacksonville-based chain under the same corporate umbrella as Burger King, Popeye's and Tim Horton's.

DeLeon relied on his business instincts as well as lessons learned through past experience to launch Grumpy's franchising program in 2019.

"I'm blessed in being able to do a lot of different jobs. Anything I do, I try to learn as much as I can ... I pride myself on being able to continually learn. Then when I don't know, bringing in the right people who do have the answers and have done this before," DeLeon said.

While he handles franchising, Morgan DeLeon is responsible for front of the house, training and staff development along with overseeing other daily operations.

"We work really well together," he said. "We've been able to learn and develop together to master the operation and she is extremely strong in the front of the house."

The couple, who have two children, had a plan for Grumpy's from the very beginning.

"Everything we did, we did with the mindset of we're going to set ourselves up for replication because that was the plan from the original purchase," he said.

Saying they've been blessed, the couple has been able to triple sales in less than two years.

Serving community

Grumpy's customers and employees are the restaurant's bread and butter but also their neighbors. That sense of community has been at the forefront during the pandemic.

Except during the mandated statewide shutdown, Grumpy's has remained open serving its full menu. The restaurant didn't reduce its hours. It didn't do third-party delivery or online ordering.

"We tried to maintain that status quo. Literally, we wanted to keep everything as regular as possible," he said.

Each of the three restaurants has about 40 employees. Grumpy's has been able to keep 90 percent of its staff despite the pandemic. DeLeon gave up a portion of his salary so employees could keep getting a paycheck.

The restaurant organized a food giveaway for residents unable to buy groceries. It also provided meals to thank health care workers and others on the frontlines of the pandemic.

There was one change, however: Grumpy's raised the price of a few menu items because of rising food costs, but there's been no across-the-board increase.

"We're an experience-based brand. We want people to be in our restaurant enjoying our product and interacting with our staff. We take our approach to dining and service a little bit different," he said.

Award-winning food, hospitality

Stacked up like a plate of buttermilk pancakes dripping with syrup, Grumpy's has received multiple local, regional and national accolades.

In July, Grumpy's received a 2021 Fast 50 Company Award from the Jacksonville Business Journal.

And in September, Grumpy’s earned a half-dozen awards from the Times-Union's Bold City Best contest, in categories voted on by readers.

National recognition for DeLeon and Grumpy's has come from several restaurant industry and franchise publications.

In February, DeLeon was voted one of the "Most Influential Restaurant CEOs in the Country" by National Restaurant News readers. DeLeon was recognized by FSR Magazine as one of its 2021 Rising Restaurant Stars, while it also recognized Grumpy's as a "2021 Next-Gen Restaurant Brand."

Success isn't something the DeLeons take for granted.

"I'm always looking forward. We have these new stores we're planning to open. I'm really focused on growth and really eager on meeting those great potential partners that are going to come on board and grow with us," DeLeon said. "I see the need for our product in many markets," he said.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Grumpy's Restaurant expanding Jacksonville-area locations