Sun Article D&K's Cafe Hires Chef John Sallman

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Lunch returns to D&K’s



Customers’ requests lead to return


By Joyce Owen joyce_owen@link.freedom.com




Last November as Jamie Landreneau and Doug and Kathy Krumel prepared to reopen D&K’s Café, a popular Grayton Beach restaurant, their goal was to create an elegant bistro that offered a fine dining experience for customers at dinner.
Success with the New Orleans-themed restaurant brought repeated requests from customers for items that graced the lunch menu – including grouper sandwiches and shrimp salad on croissants, Landreneau said.
Many remembered casual meals served on the open-air porch that offered beautiful views of the Gulf and clamored for a return of lunch service.
On July 17, with Chef John Sallman joining Doug Krumel in the kitchen, lunch will once again be served.
“There will be items from the old menu as well as some new things. We are adding a twist,” Landreneau said.
Sallman, who has a degree in culinary arts from Johnson and Wales University, started working on July 2.
“It was a first for us,” Kathy Krumel said.
The couple has had help in the kitchen, but never another chef.
“We brought John in to help when we decided to add lunch. He is very, very good,” Doug Krumel said. “He’s effi cient, fast, particular and consistent. With John here, lunch will be a cake walk.”
Sallman first lived in the area when his father was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base. Once he got his degree, he worked at the number one steak house in Miami and at the Westin Grand Bohemian in Orlando. “I wanted to come back closer to home,” he said.
He was an executive chef for three years at Café Provence in Santa Rosa Beach and most recently he worked at Sunset Charlie’s in Miramar Beach.
“This is a different set up from the casual dining at Sunset Charlie’s, a different clientele,” Sallman said. “I prefer the cuisine here, it’s more elegant.
“The pace is different. We don’t do 200 covers, instead we do 75,” he said.
Each night since Sallman arrived, the chefs walked out together to visit with customers, but on July 8, Sallman walked into the dining room alone.
“There was applause throughout the restaurant,” Landreneau said. “It was wonderful to see his face when that happened. I feel very lucky that we found him, we snagged the up and coming culinary rock star in this area.”

Chefs John Sallman and Doug Krumel will soon be preparing lunch and dinner at D&K’s Café in Grayton Beach. (Richard Owen/The Sun)