Couple brings back Warner Robins Mexican restaurant that was first popular in 1980s

For 75-year-old Gregg Frost, his family bringing back a Warner Robins restaurant that he poured his heart and soul into for nearly three decades is like coming home.

Gregg’s Mexican Restaurant, a town favorite since the early ‘80s, reopened Tuesday in the same location at 312 South Armed Forces Blvd. across from Robins Air Force Base as Greg’s Mexican Restaurant 2.0.

“It feels like I’ve come home from somewhere,” said Frost, who was on hand for the opening, shaking hands and sharing stories.

“This has always felt like home because of the people I meet; the customers I’ve had.”

Not only did his family keep his name for the Tex-Mex restaurant, they also invited him to work alongside them.

“It means so much,” Frost said. “It’s amazing to have them as little kids and they turn around and open it and love it like I do.

“I’m so proud of them.”

Chalupas and guacamole dip

Lee Pace, his nephew, started helping at the family restaurant when he was in the fifth-grade. Lee and his wife, Valarie, are behind the reopening.

The couple met at the restaurant. He was a cook and she was a server.

Today, they are the restaurant’s owners and operators.

“It’s like our second chance to bring it back home where it started out,” said Valarie Pace, who was moving from task to task at the grand opening from inspecting take-out orders in the kitchen to cashing out dine-in customers in the front.

Her husband was also busy, cooking up a storm. The restaurant filled up for lunch and take-out was also steady.

Opening day appeared to be going well.

Second Gate Cafe

When he opened in 1978, Frost said he didn’t open under his name but as the already-popular Second Gate Cafe.

The late Demetrios Zoumberis, known affectionately in town as “Big Jim,” opened the cafe in the early ‘50s, which he operated with his wife, Bessie, for many years.

“In those days, the gate that’s right across the street there at the base was the second gate, and Daddy thought it would be easier for people to remember that’s where it was,” said his son, Tony Zoumberis, who still owns the building.

As he and his father became more involved in the liquor store business, Tony Zoumberis ran the restaurant for a short time in the early ‘70s before he leased it to Frost.

“When I got started here, I didn’t want to sell Mexican food here,” said Frost, who thought he could do better with the Second Street Cafe menu. “So, I called it Second Gate Cafe. But everybody knew me and wanted Mexican food.

“So I started adding to it, adding to it, and adding to it.”

Frost already had a Mexican restaurant. He would operate five Mexican restaurants during his lifetime — though not all at the same time.

In addition to the restaurant on First Street, which was changed to Armed Forces Boulevard in 2012, Frost also owned and operated El Matador on Davis Drive, Taco King on Manor Court and Gregg’s Mexican Restaurant on Russell Parkway, all in Warner Robins.

He also owned Gregg’s Mexican Restaurant in Sumter, South Carolina. All those other restaurants are long gone.

“This one ended up being the best one,” Frost said.

When Frost opened as Second Gate Cafe, he was serving menu favorites of steaks, hamburger steaks, fried chicken, fried catfish and hamburgers.

“My customers kept asking for Mexican food,” he said. “They wanted my enchiladas, my burritos, my tacos.”

In the early 80s, Frost changed the name to Gregg’s Mexican Restaurant. But he kept the Second Gate Cafe dishes along with the Mexican fare.

“We always say just a family restaurant because the customers that come here have been coming to this building for years and years and years,” Frost said. “And their kids come here and their kids are coming, too.”

The restaurant became known for its chalupas and guacamole dip.

“I think I waited tables maybe two or three times my whole life and that’s if I had to,” Frost said “But mainly I cooked … I love doing the cooking.”

Although the restaurant continued to thrive, Frost said health issues forced him to let go of the business in 2008.

Later, his health gradually improved, and he returned to what he had been doing before owning restaurants. He’s a meat cutter, working full time at Giant Foods. He expects to fill in at the restaurant when and where needed.

Meanwhile, the restaurant changed hands and names over the years, operating as John’s Mexican Restaurant for the last 10 years before closing in October. The restaurant took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic and just wasn’t doing enough business, according to Valarie Pace.

‘Leap of faith’

When contacted by Zoumberis about the restaurant’s availability, Pace said she and her husband jumped at the chance to reclaim it.

“I think people are starting to get out more, especially with the vaccine becoming available,” Pace said. “It’s very scary jumping in like we did.

“But we hope and pray it goes well. We took a leap of faith and trust that the Lord will take care of us.”

She also noted that it’s not like they are starting a new business from scratch, having both worked there. Moreover, her husband has continuously worked at the restaurant as a cook under its different names and owners.

They also expect people will remember Gregg’s and want to come back.

“Gregg’s was a very well known place,” she said. “We’re bringing back his ways. His foods.”

The restaurant is a family affair.

One of their sons, B.J. Gibson, cooks, washes dishes and does “whatever needs to be done — a little bit of everything,” Pace said. His wife also helps out.

Their daughter, Jessica Elliott, is a server. Other family members also pitch in from time to time.

Taco Tuesdays

Wanda and Eddie Self have been coming to that restaurant spot since it was the Second Gate Cafe. They were regulars at Gregg’s and the restaurants that followed in that space, both working civilian jobs at the base and coming over for lunch once a week.

“We’ve been eating here for ages,” Wanda Self said.

The Warner Robins natives, now retired, said they were sad when John’s Mexican Restaurant closed and glad to hear that Gregg’s was coming back.

They were having lunch there on opening day.

“We were born and raised here ... so we love to support our hometown,” Eddie Self said.

Jon Nichols also has been eating at the same spot as the restaurant changed ownership over the years.

“They’re hometown,” said Nichols, who was having lunch with co-worker Troy Brantley.

Nichols and Brantley co-manage Bug House Pest Control located in Centerville, where Nichols formerly served as council member.

“We’re a small business,” Nichols said. “We support small businesses.”

Besides, it was Taco Tuesday, he said. That’s all the tacos you can eat for $12.99.

Jeremy Pond also joined a large group for Taco Tuesday.

“They finally opened back up,” said Pond, a regular when it was John’s Mexican Restaurant. “We’ve been missing this for months.”

Gregg’s is open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It’s closed on Sunday and Monday.

The restaurant’s number is 478-329-0638 — “the same number it’s always been,” Pace noted.

This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.