‘Please come out and save this restaurant.’ Warner Robins eatery faces financial crisis

WARNER ROBINS — A Warner Robins restaurant experiencing financial difficulties is in danger of closing, with the owner, staff and customers appealing to the community for help. 

“Gregg’s has been a part of this community, but we’re at a point where if business doesn’t pick up soon, we may have to close our doors,” Gregg’s Mexican posted on Facebook.

“If Gregg’s has ever been a place you’ve enjoyed, now is the time to show some love. Bring your family, tell a friend, or share this post. Every meal truly makes a difference.”

In February 2021, Valarie and Lee Pace brought back his uncle Gregg Frost’s popular restaurant that Frost operated for nearly three decades starting in 1978 before his health declined. The new restaurant was called Gregg’s 2.0.

In June 2025, Lee Pace died suddenly, with the couple’s silent partner and current owner, Jeremy Pond, keeping the Tex-Mex restaurant in operation as Gregg’s Mexican. 

Since opening in the early 1950s as Second Gate Cafe across from Robins Air Force Base, the restaurant at 312 South Armed Forces Blvd. has been in near-continuous operation under different names and owners.

Alayna Youngblood of Bonaire, with her expectant daughter and nearly 1-year-old granddaughter joining her for lunch recently, has been coming to the restaurant since she was a teenager.

“It breaks my heart because my family has come here for years, and I wanted my grandkids to be able to come here, too,” Youngblood said of the potential closure. 

In addition to the restaurant’s legacy, food – including the “amazing” guacamole – and its atmosphere, Youngblood said she’s a regular because “the workers are pretty much family.”

She appealed to the community.

“I say, please come out and save this restaurant,” Youngblood said. “It’s part of the community. It’s a staple in this community, and the workers here have been here forever, and they need to stay.”

Heather Cookson, the restaurant manager who started as a server in July 2025, said the hardest part of a possible closure is its impact on the employees, such as Daphne and Chris Ward. The Wards have been with the restaurant for years.

“They’re the backbone to this place – not the manager, not the owner, but the people who have been here for a really long time,” Cookson said.

While the restaurant has loyal customers such as Youngblood, and Penney Lockett, who always requests the same table and for whom the tostadas special on the menu is named after, others in the community may not be familiar with Gregg’s Mexican, Cookson said. 

She noted the influx of people who move in and out of the community with Robins Air Force Base.

Also, the restaurant’s location, a popular new restaurant opening nearby, economic pressures resulting in people dining out less, and possibly the Cyclospora outbreak, have all contributed to a downturn in business, Cookson said.

Lettuce, which is a mainstay for a Tex-Mex restaurant, has been linked to the foodborne illness. Although Cookson has worked closely with the restaurant’s distributors to ensure the lettuce freshly cut at the restaurant is safe, she expects a lot of people are avoiding consuming it altogether.

“It just puts a hard pressure on us as a small business,” she said. “You know, big businesses, they can weather out the storm a little easier than small businesses can. It’s much harder on us.”

The restaurant also has struggles that are unique to it, including the loss of the password to the restaurant’s outdated website upon Pace’s death, Cookson said. 

Also, the establishment’s Google page has the wrong hours despite efforts to update it, and the sign on the building displays a former telephone number, she said.

Additionally, the name of the restaurant is listed in different ways, including Gregg’s 2.0 on Facebook, Gregg’s on the sign out front of the establishment, and Gregg’s 2.0 Family Restaurant on its Google page. The correct name is Gregg’s Mexican under Pond, Cookson said.

“A lot of the steps that would make sense, cost money, and so, if you are having a time where you’re essentially breaking even or not breaking even, then it’s hard to put the investments in to make those changes, right?,” Cookson said.

“So, like the sign outside, it would be great for us to have a bigger, bolder sign for people to be able to see. One that has the correct phone number on it, for instance. But that takes capital investment, right? And so we can’t make those upgrades at this point because of where we are. So, what’s the old saying? It takes money to make money.”

Although she didn’t know about the restaurant’s Facebook post before it went up online, Cookson said she knew that the establishment was struggling.

“It is a batten down the hatches, lower the workforce kind of thing,” Cookson said. “So, we knew that financially, we needed more customers to come in to be able to stay afloat.”

Pond, who also owns JTP Resources, which provides construction and contracting services, declined an interview. But he told Cookson in response to The HHJ’s inquiry that if there’s not a financial turnaround, the restaurant “most likely” will close.

In addition to an appeal for help, the restaurant has turned to social media in an effort to improve their reach. Cookson also is working on condensing the menu into a trifold to distribute in the area.

In the few days the restaurant has been open since the appeal was posted on Facebook, an uptick in business is apparent.

Dy Baker, who had never eaten at Gregg’s Mexican, was among those answering the call.

“Let me tell you how my heart swelled walking in,” Baker posted in Robins To-Go, a popular Facebook group managed by the Robins Regional Chamber. “This team is working so hard.

“But you can feel the love and gratitude.  Service and food were excellent! This place will be on my regular as long as we can keep supporting them enough to keep the doors open. Great job Warner Robins. I love when a small community steps up to take care of their own.”

Her Facebook post included a photo of a packed front dining room.

The response from the community has been so strong that the restaurant ran out of food Tuesday and had to close early, with plans to reopen Wednesday.

“We truly can’t put into words how grateful we are,” the restaurant posted on Facebook.

Gregg’s Mexican is known for chalupas and guacamole, with its most popular monthly special the half chalupa, one taco and a burrito for $10, according to Cookson.

“So it’s Tex-Mex, but we also have a menu called, ‘Something for Everyone,’ just in case Tex-Mex isn’t your thing,” Cookson said. “So the hamburger steak, baked potato, and salad is probably one of our biggest sellers.” 

Current hours are 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, with the restaurant closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The phone number is 478-236-2058.