“I guess I’m not a fan of making somebody else money. When you own your own business and work for yourself, you are the one who benefits. It’s not about the money either. Sure, you’re in business to make money, but it’s more about service and the satisfaction of providing your customers with good service. When you consider all that, this was an easy choice to make. The only hard part was convincing my wife Kristi that it was a good idea. She came around.”
Austin is a 1989 graduate of Garretson High School. He’s married and has two kids, Chandler Austin, who’s attending Mount Marty College, and Zach Hawkins, who is a Valley Springs resident.
When taking over Dang Fine Dine, he said that he didn’t change much, because if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
“If you look online, yelp or just google Dang Fine Dine, you’ll see a lot of great reviews,” he said. “I’m using all of Vinnie’s recipes, because when you read a review from people as far away as Florida and California praising how we do things, why would you change a thing? The only thing we have changed is that we’ve added breakfasts to the menu.”
If you’ve never been to Dang Fine Dine, it’s a blast from the past. The griddle is out front, with spinning stools just in front of the griddle, and booths in a double horseshoe around the kitchen. Austin chatted amicably with customers as he served up the steak and egg special on Monday, Nov. 25. Austin reopened on the 18th, but this past Monday he debuted their new hours and their breakfast menu.
The Gazette was invited to come over for an interview at 9:30 a.m. on that Nov. 25 breakfast debut. Our editor came hungry and left very full and extremely satisfied. Aside from the steak and eggs, Austin gave our editor samples of the hand-battered chicken strips, hand-battered onion rings, and the soup special for the day, which was chili.
“The hand battering makes all the difference in the quality,” said Austin. “And that’s the emphasis, quality. These are all how Vinnie made them and we know it’s what our customers like. Soups are a big thing here, and of course our burgers are our signature items. We’ll probably add a few new items going forward, but everything you loved on the menu is back and isn’t going away. And yes, that includes a free ice cream with a lunch order.”
One local, who asked not to be identified, told the Gazette editor that he’s a repeat customer and is very happy that they’re back.
“It’s great place to get lunch, I’d come here rather than McDonalds any day,” he said. “Now they’ve got breakfast too and it’s just as good. It’s fast and the prices are great. You’d pay more for and get less getting fast food.”
Aside from the kitchen, they’ve still got Vinnie’s vinyl record setup. There are less albums on the shelves, as Vinnie kept his favorites, but Austin is starting a collection of his own.
“Again, not going to change anything about what makes this place cool,” he said. “In fact, the music while you eat is something that was another attraction for me to buy the business. Right now, we’ve got the radio on because some of the morning crowd wanted to listen to the Bob & Tom Show on B102.7. But we’ll get the record player spinning up by lunchtime. If anybody has some old records that they want to bring in and donate to add to the collection, we’ll happily take them! Vinyl has come back in a big way, and people love it.”
Austin’s new hours with Dang Fine Dine are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and he’ll be open from 5 to 8 on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
“Yet another selling point for me was the idea that I can have most nights and weekends still free,” he said. “We aren’t open for most nights and weekends unless we do a booking for a private party. So, I have nights and weekends free to enjoy with my family and friends. Again, this worked out just about perfectly. Since we re-opened we’ve been super busy. We’ve also done a brisk take out business too, and it’s a service we’re happy to provide. From retired farmers, to high school student paying with debit cards, we can handle it all. Overall, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks and I’ve been very happy. I’ve really enjoyed meeting folks and I’m looking forward to getting to know everybody.”
