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We placed an order on the J. Gumbo website for curbside pickup at the Frankfort Avenue location about 6:45 today (90 minutes ago). My card was charged & we got the email confirming our order saying another would follow with the pickup time. Half an hour later nothing. So I drive over & there is a sign on the door saying that location is closed till further notice. It would be so cool if the order website didn’t say “Open Now” or if it at least would take orders & charge your card.
Well, no sooner do I get off the forum than I get a voicemail from the ChowNow order site that J. Gumbo was unresponsive so they are canceling the order & will refund my charge within 24 hours.
I checked the FB pages. Frankfort location doesn't mention a closure. The Grinstead FB says they are open now but when I drove by on the way back home it was dark. I was going to order from the Grinstead one but the online order page indicated Grinstead is closed Saturdays & open the other six days a week so I tried the Frankfort one. We try to support local eateries by carry out during the pandemic. Website says there's a location at Stony Brook. I wonder if that one is open.
JG is a strange operation. The different locations around town are operated very differently. The Stonybrook owners are great and generally run things very well. The Frankfort Ave location is very hit-and-miss. It's not infrequent for them to unexpectedly be closed during posted hours of operation.
I believe the chain collapsed and left the remaining operations as independents with separate owners, although I could certainly be wrong about that. Frankfort Avenue, of course, was the original, with founder Billy Fox and his wife in charge. No telling what the pandemic did to that, of course.
TP Lowe wrote:Heretic though it may be, I've never been a fan. Not sure why JG has never caught on for me.
Agreed. Most of the dishes taste similar enough to say they’re the same. Additionally, there are not enough identifying elements in their Po Boy to justly call them Po Boys.
Even in it's hayday, they struggled with consistency at the Lyndon location. Closed during posted hours, ect. We loved the voodoo and drunken chicken and bumblebee stew. We quit going after multiple trips with them being closed during posted hours.
"The idea is to eat well and not die from it-for the simple reason that that would be the end of your eating." - Jim Harrison
J. Gumbo's was the "well, where else is there fairly cheap Cajun food in town?" spot. Roux was good-- but it only lasted 2 years! You would think, in a city named after King Louis XVI and filled with Fleur-de-lis, we could keep some good Cajun cooking!