New sandwich shop makes some hefty grinders

Eric and Francis Davis are introducing Roseburg to gargantuan East Coast flavors with one melted, crispy and piled high — requiring no less than two hands and possibly a good stance to fold it over — grinder at a time.

We’re talking about a sandwich here. The kind that tilts the table to one side and leaves a half dozen greasy napkins in its wake. No one searching for a quick bite need apply.

“They’re definitely not easy to eat,” said Nathan Davis, 20, who helps his parents run the Garden Valley Shopping Center restaurant and has a meatball grinder dedicated to him.

Abandon all daintiness those who enter Jack’s Oven Baked Grinders. But walk away seasoned to all manners of the open-faced sandwich, pondering your next venture to the left corner-pocket of the shopping center, formerly the Yogurt Country site.

“You don’t walk away hungry,” Francis Davis said.

Nor do you walk away thinking that’s just another sandwich shop. Named after Eric Davis’ father, who passed away eight years ago, Jack’s Oven Baked Grinders is also the kind of business that makes you feel like you’ve stepped inside someone’s home. It employs all five of the Davis kids, some nephews and nieces on the side, and possibly grandkids in the future. And that’s exactly what Eric Davis had in mind.

With about eight years of planning, Eric Davis knew he had the right business partner to open Jack’s Oven Baked Grinders when he met his wife, Francis, over a year ago. Nothing seemed more right than to bring the two families together in a work environment where they can see each other daily and keep the kids strapped with prospective employment.

If all goes as planned, the Feb. 1 opening of Jack’s Oven Baked Grinders will eventually lead to a couple of more shops opened and operated by the Davises in Douglas County. That’s the sort of thing Jack Davis — immortalized in black-and-white photographs that adorn each table with his son at 12 years old, both wearing cowboy get-up — would have done for his family, Eric Davis said.

With 18 years spent in wood products mills — mostly with Roseburg Forest Products — behind him, the 39-year-old Davis said the leap into entrepreneurship was easy to make.

Francis, 45, however, had more than 12 years of experience as a loan officer and felt a bit uneasy about leaving the security of a reliable job.

The patronage they’ve received in less than two months, however, has been overwhelming. Already Jack’s Oven Baked Grinders has repeat customers walking through the doors bringing new customers with them.

Which brings up the elderly customer known as “Elmer.” Said to be impossible to please by the friends and co-workers he brings in, Elmer’s first stop at Jack’s was a lone one as he spent nearly 45 minutes contemplating after eating a grinder, until finally standing up and saying “‘You’ve got a gold mine here,’” Eric Davis said.

Grinders may be their specialty, but it isn’t Jack’s only dish. Pizzas, soups and salads are also on the menu and Eric said he’ll soon be offering home-baked meals, like spaghetti or chicken fettucini, as well.

A liquor license is in the works and Jack’s will offer beer and wine on the menu, which includes 10 different grinders, five specialty sandwiches, six hoagies, or cold sandwiches, five pizzas and soup and salad.

A grinder combo with soup or salad costs $6.99.

Taken aback when served their first Jack’s grinder, many customers exclaim “‘What are you supposed to do with the thing!’” Eric said.

“You fold it up,” he replies.

“‘How?’”

“Well, that’s part of the fun.”



• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.