Menz's restaurant in Rio Grande

[FlyinGN]

with the big guy(owner) with one leg missing out front? its still there and still good!!

Frank

[Al Alven]

Another restaurant I have never been to, and another to add to my "eat there" list for summer '05!

[AnthonyV]

That place still scares the hell out of me....Especially that two-headed cow that was mounted on the wall.
Pretty good food though from what I recall.

[Al Alven]

OK, now my curiosity has really been piqued!

Owner with a leg missing sitting out front?

Two-headed cow... mounted on the wall?

This place has now moved waaaaaaaaay up on the list of restaurants I need to eat at for the first time this year!

(Of course, the food sounds like it's really good by all accounts also... and that certainly doesn't hurt!)

[FlyinGN]

rotflmao.. Al you have to visit it this summer and read the history of it.. Its a great place to eat.. Its packed in th esummer too. If I remember right the owner had a lost a leg in an accident or disease and when they made a statue of him in his likeness to put out front they made it just as he is.. Scary but classic. Inside there are lots od odd things to see while you are dining.. Kinda like a Fridays with stuff hanging all over. Definatly woth the night out.. If you travel out of WW via rio Grande and past rt 9 its 1/2 mile on the left. Can't miss it..

Frank

[beachboy]

Frank:

I'm not sure if you remember this but Menz was a food distributer to many of the other restaurants years ago. I'm not sure if he still is or just operates the restaurant and I'm not sure which came first, the distributership or the restaurant but I recall receiving deliveries from Menz at some of the restaurants I worked at.

[FlyinGN]

now that you menation that I DO remember seeing food delivery trucks around the WW area with the Menz name on it.. Never knew it was the same people..

Frank

[Al Alven]

I just did a quick “Google” search and found the restaurant’s official website…<br>http://www.menzrestaurant.com/

There’s some great stuff here… excellent pictures (I’m drooling over the seafood and steak now), a great on-line museum, and a detailed history of the establishment and the people who have run it.

An excerpt for everyone’s enjoyment:

The Menz Family Tradition Continues
Written by DERRI SCARLETT

Back in 1926, William Hennis had something on his mind. His 19-year-old grandson, Franklin Menz, was in the hospital for an extended period, and had lost a leg to cancer.

Fearing that Franklin had little to look forward to, and knowing that - in those days - finding a job would be difficult, Granddad Hennis decided to give him a piece of ground he owned on Route 47 in Millville. His hope was that Franklin could make himself a little business, and have something to do with his time.

Sixty years and several moves later, Franklin's little business is still going.

Franklin put that original property to good use, selling produce to passers-by.

By 1930, he expanded his operation to a roadside stand, where he sold hot dogs and hamburgers and pumped gas at 12 gallons per dollar.

In 1933, the bought a beer license (the forerunner of a liquor license) and began serving a "full" menu, which included 25- and 35- cent dinners.

Franklin's early waitress staff included a young Millville woman named Marie Quinn. Preliminary arguments showed they might be onto something, and in 1937 she took on the additional job of being Mrs. Menz.

She brought several recipes to the family business, and more evolved through the years. Even now, her deviled crabs, cole slaw and banana whipped cream pie are favorite staples of their menu.

When Route 55 came through the Millville area, their restaurant was a casualty of progress and soon after, Franklin and Marie brought their family to Rio Grande, where they bought Fort Apache, a recreated Old West town, and turned it into a campground. During and after this venture, they operated several businesses, but non we as satisfying as their original.

In 1977, his children, now grown, were bitten by the restauranteurial bug, and Franklin and Marie found themselves back in the business, this time accompanied by Denise, Trudy and Jay Menz.

They opened Menz's Seafood Take Out on July fourth of that year and added a dining room the following January.

Like the buildings, the furnishings, antiques, bric-a-brac and oddities have been collected through the years, the restaurant is now a staple for "locals" and visitors alike.

The restaurant's latest acquisition was the purchase of a liquor license on June of 2000. By July the new enclosed front porch bar was in full swing, including Happy Hour every Friday night complete with entertainment hor'doerves and specialty drinks.

The Menz family is continuing the tradition born many years ago not too far away; to give people a good meal at a fair price and make them want to come back.