Downtown Grille has been firing up some new dishes under the guidance of the restaurant’s new chef and general manager.
After it was announced Chef Allen Sanders was taking a new job opportunity in Georgia, a job listing was posted online and Chef John Kellogg said it caught his attention.
“I saw what Bill (Boykin) was doing here and felt like it could be a good fit,” Kellogg said. “Bill’s got a great operation here and it’s doing well. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s doing well, but it’s time to take it up to the next level. We’re going to shake Greenville up a little bit food-wise.
Kellogg and his wife, Pat, recently moved to Greenville from Bentonville, Arkansas. With 40-plus years of culinary experience, Kellogg has worked around the world but they especially enjoy the Southern charm found in small towns and feel ready to settle down in the Queen City.
“Allen did a great job when he was here and he took a position in Atlanta that’ll give him more time with his family. In this business, you don’t get a lot of family time. Fortunately, mine are all grown, married and moved out,” he said.
Kellog’s apprenticeship was under Chef Robert Pastoria from Belgium and he completed his formal training as an executive chef in Paris, France. More recently, he spent five years cooking at Cedar Grove Mansion Inn in Vicksburg.
Now leading the kitchen at Downtown Grille, Kellogg said he is working to add new and modern dishes to the menu, which hasn’t seen many changes since the restaurant opened in 2017.
“A la carte dining has gotten kind of old,” he said, noting only a few dishes, such as their steaks, will remain a la carte. The new menu he is working on will feature dishes that come as they are.
Before a new menu is officially created, which should be ready in the next week or two, Kellogg said he is serving evening dinner specials to introducing his style.
Some of those dinner specials have included brace of fried quail and gravy served with rice and black eyed peas and pan-seared grouper served with coconut rice, green tomato relish and spring onion chimichurri.
“You’ll see a lot of dishes designed with a combination of flavors and textures and colors served the way they are to create a certain flavor profile,” he said. “Food’s an experience, it’s gotten to be more than just fuel.”
Other dishes, he said, will consist of adapting classic recipes into Mississippi favorites. Arancini, a classic Italian fried rice ball for instance, will be made with Delta rice grits stuffed with pimento cheese topped with a tomato gravy sauce as an appetizer.
“Our focus is going to be quality. We’re here to give people a great experience they can’t get anywhere else,” he said. “You don’t have to drive to Oxford anymore, you don’t have to drive to Jackson. It’s here in downtown Greenville.”
The food won’t be the only thing changing at Downtown Grille, Kellogg said, noting even the servers’ uniforms, table sets and more will be updated. When the changes do take place, Kellogg said they will occur overnight.
“It’s just easier that way than trying to filter things in one at a time,” he said.
“We’re changing a lot of things. Change scares some people but it’s always a good thing,” he said. “It’s time. Greenville is getting ready to grow up a little bit with the courthouse coming and other businesses getting ready to come to town. It’s poised to be big again.”
Even the new menu won’t stay around very long as Kellogg said he plans to update the menu twice about year.
“We’ll have a fall/winter menu and a spring/summer menu,” he said, noting he also is making plans to host special meal events, such as wine dinners, bourbon dinners and beer dinners.
Although the food menu is facing a lot changes, Bar Manager Don Johnson said the drink menu will stay about the same, with the exception of drink specials.
“Later in the year, I’d like to update to a fall or winter drink menu because I have a lot of summer cocktails on it. I’m always working on something, so you never really know,” he said.
Now working alongside Kellogg, Johnson said he is excited about the changes coming to Downtown Grille.
“My whole mantra is ‘Never stop learning.’ … It’s hard to say that you know everything. Anytime someone can come in and bring fresh ideas, a fresh set of eyes, it’s always great,” Johnson said. “I love the fact that he’s creative and he wants to push these dishes a little bit, which I’m all about. If he can teach me anything with flavors that I didn’t think about trying before, that’s great. He cooks with heat, I cook with ice. It’s all flavor.”
Kellogg said he, too, looks forward to working alongside Johnson and where they can take the restaurant from here.
“Don and I have a unique opportunity to take this where we want to take it,” he said. “Bill’s been gracious enough, his only requirement is we make it the best place in town. And that’s easy because it’s already here. We just need to fine-tune it and take it in a direction to keep it growing and keep people excited.”
Updates and other restaurant news will be posted to Downtown Grille’s Facebook page. To book a dinner reservation, call 662-702-5161.
