Princeton grill pays tribute to Oli & Eli

PRINCETON — Jerry Jo Creech and her brother, Charles, have opened Oli & Eli’s Grill as a tribute to their parents.

“I have always wanted to sell my mom’s hot dog chili and just serve a hot dog,” said Creech, one of 11 siblings who grew up on that chili. “I was going to set up a cart outside … on Saturdays to serve hot dogs and some chili.”

But then she realized that her dream could reach greater heights with a brick-and-mortar eatery. So some three years ago, Creech and her brother began rehabbing a building at 109 S. Center St. in downtown Princeton.

The storefront, which had been home to numerous businesses over the year, needed a lot of work, Creech said. “It actually had to be built from the ground up just about,” she said. “We kept all the original walls that we could and saved as much of the ceiling and stuff like that.”

In all, the renovation took about three and a half years, Creech said. “We were trying to go into it as debt-free as possible, so it took a while,” she said. “We were also still working full-time jobs. We just took our time fixing it.”

From the name to the mural on a wall, the restaurant is a tribute to Olive and Oscar Elias Creech, the siblings’ late parents.

“Their picture was painted by my niece, Rachel,” Creech said, pointing to the mural behind the cash register. “She knew what mom and dad meant to us. So two years ago, on Father’s Day, she called me and asked if I could come down to the grill. They were surprising us with the picture.”

The mural is of Oli and Eli waving their children off from the porch of their home. “Every time one of us kids would leave their house, they would walk us to the door and wave goodbye to us,” Creech said. “Mom has got a cigarette in her hand, but she would always stub it out before she would wave us off. That’s the screen door on their back porch where we were raised.”

His mom and dad were the inspiration for all this, Charles said. “All 11 of us had a wonderful childhood,” he said. “And this is what we can do to honor them.”

The menu honors the specific way Oli cooked, Creech said. “Mom had a special way of making her chili, and she also had a special way of cooking her hot dogs,” she said.

“On Saturday for lunch, we’d go sit down, and there would literally be a 10-pound box of hot dogs fixed with a bit of chili, and that’s what we were raised on,” she said. “We enjoyed them so much. We just wanted people to enjoy what we were raised on. We wanted to share how much we loved it in the hopes that they would love it too.”

The menu features cheeseburgers and hot dogs with toppings ranging from homemade chili to jalapeños. The burgers and dogs come with fresh-cut fries or chips as a side. Visit Oli & Eli’s Grill on Facebook to view the whole menu.

The grill, which can seat up to 18 people, opened in April.

The best part has been sharing stories with diners, Creech said. “We had one gentleman come in from Our State magazine one day,” she said. “It was the very first day that I made my dad’s homemade coleslaw. So I served him, and I said, ‘OK, you are going to be my guinea pig, and you’ll have to tell me how it is.’ ”

“We got to talking, and it turns out that his mom would use things that we used in the food,” Creech said. “It’s great to have talks and tell stories. It’s the little things like that that mean the most.”

Oli & Eli’s Grill is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

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