Thank You From Grillestone

My name is Frank Peterpaul and my family and I have owned and operated Grillestone for the past fourteen years. On behalf of my family, I would like to thank our valued patrons and dedicated staff who supported and worked with us throughout the years. We have been blessed to serve the surrounding communities for the past decade and a half. For that opportunity, we are truly thankful.

Grillestone has been incredibly rewarding, both personally and professionally, with many more peaks than valleys. The good meals and memories far outnumbered the poor experiences (despite with the vocal minority would have you believe on yelp or other social media outlets) and Grillestone’s reach was far and wide. I can confidently say that we never compromised on sourcing the best quality food products and providing the best service for the fairest price possible. We were always proud of the Grillestone product and always did the best we could. We treated customers fairly, tried to right our wrongs and always attempted to conduct business honorably.

We have served over one million meals throughout the years. Our valued customers were the lifeblood of our business. Many customers became friends and some of those friends became family. They became the fabric of Grillestone and in turn, part of the Peterpaul family. These special bonds forged over a meal, a beer, a cosmo, a glass of wine will never be forgotten.

We have hosted countless holidays, birthday parties, retirement parties, baptisms, communions, bridal showers, baby showers and celebrations of life. We’ve had the honor of witnessing proposals and intimate weddings. It was never once lost on us that so many chose Grillestone to share in these moments. For that, we are truly grateful.

We always took great pleasure in supporting and contributing to local schools, sports teams, town organizations, surrounding police/fire/EMT departments, local charities, religious organizations and other worthwhile causes. We felt a strong sense of community and felt it our duty to help many where help was needed.

We would like to extend a thank you to our valued staff, some of whom we have worked with for the past fourteen years. The devotion to your craft and the pride taken in building the Grillestone brand is truly commendable. The countless hours worked, holidays and special occasions with family missed and the overall dedication to Grillestone and to one another will never be forgotten. The hospitality industry can be grueling, but you handled it with grace and tenacity and for that we thank you.

We would like to thank the vendors, entertainment and business professionals we have met throughout the years. Thank you for being true partners in our operation and providing impeccable service and invaluable guidance. We were fortunate to conduct business with such passionate and knowledgeable individuals.

We would like to thank our friends and family for their unwavering support. Your constant motivation and encouragement were a driving force. The sacrifices made and time spent helping us live out our passion was the ultimate show of love.

For the detractors, yelpers and self-proclaimed restaurant critics, I would relish the opportunity to review you at your job, every minute of every day, without interruption, and at your moment of error, give you a 1 star for all the world to see. For every person who tried Grillestone once and said they would never come back, there were ten other customers who enjoyed their Grillestone experiences and would return again and again. For the customers that said that the quality of the food isn’t the same, when faced with the choice of profits over product, we always chose to source superior product. Too often we dwelled on the nasty and offensive comments, so consumed with the one percent who didn’t enjoy Grillestone, however it never deterred us from our mission of providing the best food and service for the best value possible.

I would invite anyone who has a negative perception of Grillestone or any other restaurant for that matter, to operate a restaurant for a day, a week, a month. I would suspect most would tap out rather quickly.

I often say that a restaurant is a microcosm of society, a cross section of humanity that shows the best and worst of people. Who in life doesn’t experience ups and downs? We never took the good times for granted and we used mistakes to learn and grow as a business and as human beings.

It must be stated that it was a family business decision to sell Grillestone and divest from the restaurant industry. Grillestone did not close or go out of business. We wish the new owner/operators much success and fortune in the coming years.

Grillestone Old Bridge will continue to operate under wonderful new ownership. Please continue to support them and all local restaurants in these trying times.

Grillestone was a triumph. Grillestone was a success. Grillestone defied the odds. Grillestone will be missed.

-The Peterpauls