Neighborhood spot

BROOKINGS — With both its soft-opening and grand opening weeks in the books, the new restaurant off South Main in Brookings is settling in to what its owners envision it to be — a neighborhood spot to grab a bite, burger or a beer on the south side of town.

Nestled into the new Trailshead multi-use development on the corner of South Main and Trail Ridge Road, JD’s hit the ground running this month after a rapid six months of planning.

“We did soft opening the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th… and then we opened full days that Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So grand opening was the 15th, and it’s been really good — the support from the community has been awesome,” said Kolton Mohror, general manager and co-owner of the new spot.

JD’s is co-owned by Jesse Davis, who owns Craft Chophouse and Lounge on Medary and Sixth Street, where Mohror worked in the kitchen for five years, including the last three as kitchen manager.

When Davis heard the space might be available — it’s the lower end of the new development there — he was interested, and when he asked Mohror if he wanted to be partners, he jumped at the chance.

“Jesse kind of heard there would be a restaurant space over in this new building. And Keeghan from Craft, I have known him for years, as well. And so Jesse was like, ‘Do you guys want to open up a new restaurant?’”

“Jesse has a great mind for the restaurant business. He’s proven through Craft that he knows what he’s doing. And I’ve known him for 20 years, so it was pretty much a no‑brainer,” Mohror said.

Neighborhood spot
Mohror said the menu at JD’s is deliberately streamlined, especially to start. They aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, culinarily, though he will lay claim to “the best cheese curds in town.”

The idea, instead, is to be a neighborhood joint where locals can come and get a sandwich, appetizer and a drink without circumnavigating the city.

As Brookings has grown — predominately toward the south — spots to eat and drink have not followed residential neighborhoods.
JD’s aims to help change that.

“I feel like the south end of town is pretty underserved, bar and restaurant‑wise,” Mohror said. “As we sit here, there’s about three square miles around us where it’s this spot, The Depot and The Pheasant. There’s a lot of people who live around here, who don’t have many options.”

And patrons have noticed. Mohror said that was the single biggest comment he heard during their soft opening nights.

“That was one of the big things — as we were getting closer to opening , I kept hearing ‘I can’t wait to walk down’ or ‘I can’t wait to bike down,’ or “It will be nice not having to go across town or downtown,” he said.

“So that was our idea. We just tried to make it that neighborhood spot — ‘Hey, want to go grab a couple beers and a burger at JDS? Sure, let’s go.’”

Familiar favorites
Visitors will find a menu full of familiar favorites — sometimes with a twist. Mohror said that was intentional, to make diners feel at home while they’re still trying the new place out.

A regular burger and a chicken bacon ranch sandwich share spots with Asian BBQ shrimp and a shrimp rangoon po’ boy, for instance.

“We had a rough idea of the menu… And then we kind of threw that out the window,” Mohror said with a laugh. “There’s two different sides, and we’ve kind of hammered out both. Making it delicious and then also making it work from a production aspect.”

“Having grown up here, you have a good idea what people like,” he said. “Then it’s just a question of how can we do it — how can we balance great flavor with the execution every single time, every single day. And you gotta give the people what they want.”

For now, that’s a selection of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and flatbreads. The bar offers beer and wine as well as soft drinks — again, a conscious decision to begin with.

“So we went beer and wine just to start, just to kind of test the waters,” Mohror said. “The price difference is like, let’s just start here, let’s get our feet under ourselves. But, yes, a full liquor license is a possibility down the road.”

JD’s is currently open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Staffing up

They’re also leaning on the team coming over from Craft, a known quantity in town for decades now.

“I think we have something like 100 years restaurant experience within the management,” Davis said. “So we were able to put a lot of time into envisioning the kinds of problems that are going to come up and heading them off before they do.”
Mohror agreed.

“Our ownership group together, we all came from Craft, and you know we’ve proven for however many years over there that we know how to produce good food at a high rate, so having our faces behind that, it’s big,” he said. “It helps ensure people know they’re going to come here and they’re going to get good food, they’re going to get good service.”

The staffing up process keeps coming along, Mohror said, despite it being the tougher summer months.

“Kitchen’s always tough – that’s just how it is no matter when you open. But I lucked out and found really great kitchen staff so far; they’ve been crushing it,” he said.

“There’s always stuff to do. There’s always stuff to improve on… it’s a lot, but it’s the next step in my career.”
The soft opening and grand opening shifts served their purpose, to work out some of the kinks while serving a friendly audience.

Opening a new restaurant is always a crazy experience — think building a plane while you’re also trying to fly it.

“I’ve seen Friday nights in other restaurants go worse than what our grand opening has gone, so in my mind it’s gone perfect,” Davis said with a grin.

There’s a space outside for a patio, and the group plans on finishing that soon, with live music planned outside sometime next month. They encourage folks to stop in and have a drink and an appetizer and listen to some tunes if they haven’t yet been in for lunch or dinner.

“It’s been a grind for the last five months, don’t get me wrong,” Mohror said “But I think this is the most fun I’ve had in my life.”

“Obviously, you can have a dream and a goal to start up a place like this, but then actually having people come out and support you is… it’s amazing.”

Linehan is the Beacon’s managing editor and welcomes comments at BrookingsBeacon@@gmail.com