Beach Nook café serves up tasty treats

• Beach Nook

Julie buntjer/Daily Globe Jeff Grimmius is ready to serve up ice cream treats, walking tacos and coneys at the Beach Nook Café in Worthington’s Centennial Park.

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WORTHINGTON — With a cool breeze blowing in off Lake Okabena, Jeff Grimmius has just about the perfect summer job as he greets customers and fills orders at the Beach Nook Café on Worthington’s Centennial Park shore.

Grimmius’ parents, Roger and Pat, purchased the business from Gail Rogers earlier this year and are excited about offering a place for people to enjoy an ice cream treat, a hot dog and chips or a refreshing beverage.

The family opened the Beach Nook Café Memorial Day weekend and anticipates staying open at least through King Turkey Day weekend in mid-September.

“We want to keep it open for people to enjoy,” said Pat Grimmius, who works full-time at Bedford Technology. “We want to have a fun place for people to go to.”

The café is open from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with hours from noon to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Menu items range from pizzas, nachos and walking tacos to hot dogs, coneys and bratwursts. Salads and barbecues will be added to the menu in the near future.

With its location right on the beach, the café also has a wide variety of cool treats, from vanilla, chocolate chip cookie dough, cotton candy, cherry nut, maple nut, almond joy and candy bar swirl ice cream served up in cake cones, waffle cones and sundae cups. In addition, malts, shakes, bomb pops, freeze pops and Mississippi Mud ice cream bars are on the menu.

So far, Jeff said business has been good — especially on the weekends. Both Roger and Pat help in the café then, and their daughter Nicky, who worked at the business when it was the Beach Nook, also helps when she can.

“It sounded kind of like fun to be by the beach,” said Jeff about the business venture. Roger Grimmius, who now works for NFIB, once worked for Fred’s Café in Worthington and Jeff worked about three and a half years for Arby’s.

In addition to serving food and treats, the Grimmius clan is responsible for keeping the beach and the restrooms clean. They provide a patio area next to the café and invite people to come out and relax on their lunch hour.

On June 30, the Beach Nook Café will serve free freeze pops to everyone who stops in.

Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be reached at 376-7330.

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