From one Junior’s to another

Posted under Burnsville, News on Thursday 29 July 2010 at 2:08 pm

James Reyes Jr., pictured at his Junior’s Cafe and Grill in Eagan, is opening Junior’s Sports Cafe in the Towne and Country shopping center in Burnsville. Photo by John Gessner

Owner of Junior’s Cafe and Grill in Eagan coming to Burnsville with American staples and full bar

by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers

James Reyes Jr. doesn’t fret about the recent fortunes of his new restaurant space in Burnsville, where two eateries have gone out of business.

He thinks he’s got a winner, and there’s reason to believe him.

Reyes owns Junior’s Cafe and Grill in the Duckwood Square strip center on Duckwood Drive in Eagan. He’s bringing his all-American diner concept to the Towne and Country shopping center in northeast Burnsville, where Junior’s Sports Cafe is expected to open in early September.

Junior’s will take  over  the space at 1996 E. Highway 13 previously occupied by the AppleWood Rustic Grille and Event Center, which closed last October. Before that it was a hot dog-and-pizza place called Papa T’s.

“There were a couple things in this place that didn’t make it either, and we’ve been here for seven years,” Reyes said in an interview at his Eagan restaurant. “Making good food and treating your customers well, that’s what makes you survive.”

The Eagan restaurant’s decor and agreeably smoky cooking smells pretty much announce what’s on the menu. Cooks work over an open griddle behind a counter lined with stools. The walls are covered with images of 20th-century Americana, and the table coverings are checkered red and white.

The place is known for its breakfasts, fresh-cut burgers and other stars-and-stripes staples.

“American food,” said Reyes, 31, of Apple Valley. “Blue-plate specials. Meat loaf. Brisket. Country-fried steak. Real mashed potatoes. Gravy. Stuff like that.”

Reyes has worked in restaurants most of his life. His father, James Sr., used to own two Sizzler Steakhouses, in West St. Paul and Columbia Heights.

After they closed, James Sr. got into the distribution end of the business as a meat salesman.

“He does that now with Reinhart FoodService,” James Jr. said. “He’s my food distributor. He’s one of the top salesmen in the company.”

The elder Reyes has been a close adviser to his son and helped him scout a location for Junior’s Sports Cafe.

At Junior’s in Eagan, James Jr. is a hands-on owner who even gets help from his mother, Alice.

The 6,700-square-foot Burnsville location seats 165, dwarfing the nook-like Eagan site.

“We’ve been open seven years now,” said Reyes, who is married and has three children. “I think the business is where it’s going to be. … I want to take the next step so I can quit waiting tables and be a manager.”

Reyes is adding pizza and appetizers at his Burnsville restaurant, which will  have a full bar, unlike the Eagan site.

He expects to grow into the space, leaving the banquet portion unused for now. Reyes has no immediate plans for live music, which AppleWood Rustic Grille tried.

“We’re going to see what the business brings us,” Reyes said. “Right now there’s a stage there. We’re going to leave it there. Maybe we’ll get ideas from the customers.”

While Reyes is courting a nighttime crowd, he knows his most faithful customers may be those who rise with the sun.

In March’s Minnesota Monthly magazine, WCCO-TV reporter Jason DeRusha ranked Junior’s Cafe and Grill seventh on his top-10 list of Twin Cities breakfast spots.

“We’re still going to open at 7 a.m.,” Reyes said. “We want to get a Burnsville breakfast crowd going there. We have a lot of clientele here from Burnsville.”

John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.

1 Comment

  1. Comment by lenny — August 9, 2010 @ 10:12 am

    this is AWESOME! can’t wait!


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