Friends & Family: Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen
When their children were small, Jim O’Donoghue and Lee Mikles spent many evenings around Mikles’ backyard firepit. “When you have young kids, you’re homebound,” Mikles explains. “Neighbors would come over and hang out.”
They often discussed the lack of family-friendly restaurants that appealed to adults. The friends wanted exciting but casual food, great drinks and good times. They bandied about ideas for menus—even names. One place, called “The Mill,” would specialize in craft beer, pizza and burgers.
At that time, O’Donoghue was in banking, and Mikles was in marketing. But if you think they were only daydreaming, guess again. Today, they own not one but four restaurants under the Grain umbrella. The newest location, Grain on the Rocks, opened in June in the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal in Lewes.
Grain is more than a partnership between friends. It is a family affair. Bill Wallen, the executive chef, oversees three of the four restaurants, including the Lewes establishment, where daughter Jessica Wallen is the kitchen manager.
Working with friends or family isn’t always easy. But these pros manage to grow with the Grain instead of against it.
Like a Good Neighbor
O’Donoghue and Mikles have Delaware roots, although O’Donoghue—born in Georgia—moved to the state at age 14. His father was an accountant for Hercules. Mikles, who grew up in North Wilmington, also has a link to a legacy business; his dad led marketing for the DuPont Co. division that made golf balls.
At the University of Delaware, O’Donoghue studied political science and business, while Mikles majored in electrical engineering and earned an MBA. Yet both have creative streaks. Mikles cofounded The Archer Group, a digital marketing agency that broke new ground in advertising. O’Donoghue worked in sports marketing for MBNA, which pioneered affinity credit cards.
They met in the Newark-area community where they still reside. “Lee and Kathy walked over the day after we moved in with a bottle of wine and introduced themselves,” O’Donoghue recalls. “The rest is history.”
They’ve vacationed together and even parented together. “When one kid is having trouble, whether it’s yours or not, you all step in,” Mikles says. “Catie [Jim’s wife] would write school notes for our kids. Kathy and I are godparents to Jim and Catie’s twin girls.”
Grain Grows
When you see O’Donoghue and Mikles together, you can tell they’re buds. They’re quick to flash boyish grins and break into mischievous chuckles. (With O’Donoghue, it’s more of a giggle.) But opening a restaurant with a friend is a risky business.
At the start, they agreed to discuss “when we are driving each other crazy,” O’Donoghue says. “It has worked great so far; our disagreements are usually discussions that end with grabbing a beer and moving on.”
In 2015, an ideal space in Newark, Delaware, became available on Main Street. Not only was it on the college town’s primary artery, but it had parking. Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen opened in July.
Expansion was always the goal. However, the partners never imagined opening a second and third spot in the same month. But that is what happened in 2017, when Grain H2O debuted in the former Aqua Sol at Summit North Marina in Bear, Delaware, and Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen opened in downtown Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. As with the Newark site, the spaces were too good to pass up.
The friends had the same sentiment when they toured the restaurant in the ferry terminal. “We took the ferry a few times, and we would always comment on what a beautiful location it is,” O’Donoghue says of the bayfront restaurant. “We felt very strongly that if we were able to ‘Grainify’ the place, we could make it a destination for southern Delaware.”
A Culinary Connection
The terminal restaurant has a stellar view of the ferry activity and the water. But the site was dated, generic and rarely celebrated for the food. Putting the Grain spin involved more than opening up the dining room to the patio and adding a stage. It also took the talents of Chef Bill Wallen and his daughter, Jessica.
The Philadelphia-area native became a busser at age 15 after his father told him: “Go find a job.” By his mid-20s, he was working the 3 a.m. to noon shift at a donut shop and heading to a full-service restaurant at night. “I was trying to learn as much as I could about the business,” he says. He cooked for the Philadelphia Eagles and in the famous City Tavern in Philadelphia. For eight years, he worked at Bobby Flay’s Bobby’s Burger Palace.
Daughter Jessica was 15 when she started preparing salads in a restaurant kitchen. After graduating from high school, she joined her father in the kitchen at the Grain location in Newark.
“I feel as though I have the best culinary teacher,” she says of her decision to work with her father rather than attend culinary school. Everyone must work their way up, notes her dad, a graduate of The Restaurant School at Walnut College.
Jessica became the kitchen manager of the Lewes Grain when she was 23. “We put her in charge, and my job is to support her,” Wallen says.
The Delmarva Difference
All four restaurants have similar menus with some exceptions. “They eat more seafood down here than they do at the other three,” Wallen says of the Lewes site.
Bestsellers at the beach include the lobster roll and the “hula bowl,” made with seared yellowfin tuna, jasmine rice, avocado and veggies topped with a soy glaze and spicy aioli. Crab nachos are a big hit. “The cheese sauce that they use is delicious,” maintains customer Kelley Barnes Grovola. Crab pretzels, crab nachos and fish tacos are other frequent customer favorites.
Amy White appreciates that her toddler can wander along the boardwalk and look at the water while they wait for a table. The outdoor waiting area is a boon during the pandemic.
“It’s such a fab addition,” she says of the restaurant. “I don’t know if it’s the sea air, but the Lewes orange crush beats all the other locations— no question. And those truffle fries are serious.”
Even during the pandemic, the summer crowds flocked to the new restaurant. “We open at 11:30 a.m., and there are people lined up at 11:30,” Wallen says.
On the Same Page
O’Donoghue and Mikles have long given the Wallens free rein to come up with new dishes. (Jessica says the dining room staff are usually more willing to be guinea pigs than the kitchen workers.)
She’s learned to excel in the kitchen’s organized chaos. “Bill’s way of teaching me is to throw me in and see how I do.” Early in her young career, she became flustered while expediting. “Chefs don’t panic,” her father reminded her.
After a few forays behind the kitchen doors, Mikles has learned to stay in the dining room. “It really is an orchestra back there, and it was like I walked in with an accordion and started playing my own tune,” he says. “They were talking a whole different language.”
The partners agree that their primary duty is to support the general managers, he says. A self-professed geek, Mikles gravitates toward tasks involving technology while O’Donoghue excels at operations and building maintenance. But sometimes it’s a matter of who takes a call first.
No matter what they do, their goal is the same: Consistency and quality. Says Mikles: “We think working together in a field with a shared passion has benefitted all of us.”
THE GRAIN FAMILY
Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen
270 East Main Street, Newark, DE; 302.444.8646
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Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen
108 W. State Street, Kennett Square, PA; 484.886.4154
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Grain H2O
3006 Summit Harbour Lane, Bear, DE; 302.440.4404
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Grain on the Rocks
43 Cape Henlopen Drive, Lewes Ferry Terminal
Lewes, DE; 302.291.3900
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