Jefferson St. Grill offers new, casual dining option for Mt. Pleasant residents

MT. PLEASANT - Mt. Pleasant residents have a new dining option as locals Tina and Jim Mathews have opened up a new restaurant, Jefferson St. Grill, in the downtown area.

The restaurant is located at 121 N. Jefferson Street, and sits where Keo's Grill and Back Bar was formerly. The restaurant opened on Aug. 20 and offers a full menu as well as a relaxed and casual atmosphere for locals to enjoy.

The Mathews, have experience in the restaurant business as they owned both a restaurant and a bar before the Jefferson St. Grill. The couple saw a need for another option in town for casual dining, which inspired their decision to create a space to fill that gap. Prior to opening, the Mathews did extensive renovations to create a lounge-like atmosphere for patrons.

'I don't think that's something Mt. Pleasant has a lot of,” Tina said, adding the couple's goal was to make the place warm and inviting. 'We try to give people an atmosphere that is unique to us. We try to make it sort of like a lounge area, just come in and relax, it's not a party spot. And it's something Mt. Pleasant needed.”

According to Jim, the couple had been looking for an opportunity to get back into the food service industry for two years, and plan to make the Jefferson St. Grill their retirement business. Currently Tina still works part time at Lampline Lighting while Jim works in maintenance in Burlington. Their busy schedules mean it's all-hands-on-deck, with the couple's children periodically dropping by to help out. For now, the restaurant is open in the afternoons Tuesdays through Fridays and lunch on Saturdays. As the couple transitions to the restaurant full-time, they hope to expand the hours to serve lunch throughout the week.

Tina's passion has always been in the food industry.

'I just love the business. I like to feed people ... I've always had a passion for it,” Tina said. Having grown up in Mt. Pleasant, Tina began waitressing at the age of 13 at the Whistle Stop Cafe in town. Her face is a familiar one to the community.

'There's a lot of people that I don't know their name but I know their faces because I've waited on them or cooked for them some time over the last thirty years … Mt. Pleasant is a great community. It's got that small town vibe and it's just a great place to be.”

While running the new restaurant, Tina spends most of her time in the kitchen cooking and describes Jefferson St. Grill's menu as a 'wide selection of sides and sandwiches, good old American grub, nothing too fancy, just good, simple.”

'I'm not a fancy cook, not a gourmet cook, but nothing beats a good burger and a good order of fries,” Tina said.

Their menu's main feature is its selection of burgers.

'We just built ten different burgers. We saw things from places we've eaten at over the years and just kind of incorporated our own twist on them,” Jim noted.

Tina, who decided the menu's selection said, 'I wanted to do the burgers because it can be kind of hard to find a good burger in this town. We patty our burgers everyday. They come in bulk and it's not frozen. We also bread our own loins.”

In time, the couple hopes to begin switching things up and begin adding different items for restaurant goers to try.

'As we get rolling, we'll probably do other specials and drink specials. We'll keep things new and exciting as we go along. Every time you come in, it's not the same thing,” Tina said.