Justin Milliken, co-owner of the Grumpy's restaurant in St. Johns County, was found dead Wednesday morning inside the diner he and his wife, Leah, had built into a neighborhood breakfast and lunch favorite. He was a father, an Army veteran, and a fixture behind the counter of the Southern-style diner at 155 Fountains Way that his family opened in August 2021.
Law enforcement officials told First Coast News that Milliken's death is being characterized as an apparent suicide. That update followed earlier word from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office that deputies who responded to a call at the restaurant reported no indication of foul play, according to the St. Johns Citizen. Grumpy's corporate office did not immediately return the paper's request for comment.
In the days before his death, Milliken had been visibly present in the life of the restaurant and online. He posted a photo posing with Grumpy's staff on August 30, shared a poolside photo on Facebook the day before he died, and posted a selfie to the platform on Tuesday, per the same account from the St. Johns Citizen.
A Family Business Built From a Pandemic Leap of Faith
Justin and Leah Milliken signed on as Grumpy's second franchisees in September 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the St. Johns Citizen. The St. Johns County site had originally been slated as a corporate-owned store before company leadership selected the couple instead, according to a history posted on the Grumpy's Restaurant Company blog. Leah Milliken has said Grumpy's was her family's favorite restaurant and that she hoped to build a local gathering place for families and friends when the couple opened the location in August 2021 — the Jacksonville-area chain's third restaurant at the time, which was expected to create more than 40 jobs.
Before its official opening, the location hosted charitable soft-opening events that sent 100 percent of guest donation proceeds to Nease High School and the First Coast YMCA, cementing early ties to the surrounding community. The diner sits within Fountains South, a commercial phase of the Fountains at St. Johns development along County Road 210 that reached full retail leasing by August 2023, according to a report compiled by Cross Regions.
Milliken's Military Service and Business Career
Milliken served four years of active-duty service as a U.S. Army officer between 1997 and 2001, attaining the rank of captain. He served as a special operations medical officer with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and as a medical intelligence and bioweapons officer with the 1st Ranger Battalion. After his military service, he spent more than two decades working in medical-device sales and management.
His public LinkedIn profile, examined by the Hindustan Times, shows he pursued undergraduate studies at Norwich University, took Harvard Business School Online's financial accounting course, and earned an executive MBA from Cornell University.
Store Reopening Thursday After Brief Closure
Grumpy's Restaurant Company President and CEO Daniel DeLeon said the St. Johns diner remained closed on Wednesday but was scheduled to reopen Thursday for normal business hours, the St. Johns Citizen reported. Corporate leadership has maintained a respectful stance toward the Milliken family while balancing store operations and moving to reopen the location quickly following the incident.
Grumpy's Restaurant traces its roots to 1999, when a retired U.S. Navy cook known as “Chef Grumpy: The Bad Mood Dude” founded the original Orange Park diner to serve working-class portions to the local community, according to the company's blog. DeLeon and his wife, Morgan, acquired the brand in 2017 and launched its franchise system in 2019 after turning around the flagship location, per Franchise Times. Franchise disclosure information reported by RestaurantNews.com in October 2019 put the initial investment to open a single Grumpy's unit between $370,850 and $660,900 for a 2,600 to 3,000-square-foot footprint with roughly 106 seats.
By this spring, Grumpy's Sizzled in Q1 across its existing locations while the company built its sixth area restaurant in Fleming Island, reflecting continued regional growth for the chain the Millikens helped expand into St. Johns County.
