Grille partners want to please customer

Paul “Head Hobbit” Mandell takes orders from behind the counter at The Hobbit Grille in Bonita Springs.

The Hobbit Grille is taking orders and the two guys who run the place are willing to do anything to avoid turning a customer’s request down.

Tom Schillig and Paul “Head Hobbit” Mandell bought the restaurant that was once Uncle G’s Deli just south of Bonita Beach Road on Old 41 in early April.

“I always wanted a sub shop and the name hobbit has always been on my mind for it,” said Schillig who named the restaurant based on another shop he used to visit on trips to see his sister at her university.

The name, Schillig said, has nothing to do with the “Lord of the Rings” movies and he’d prefer people think of the shop in terms of good eats and a nice atmosphere.

“We know what people want and what to cook,” said Schillig about the shop that sells sandwiches, salads, and Danish barbecue. “Paul is an excellent chef and I like to cook and always loved food.”

Schillig’s love of food and his eight-year friendship with Mandell led them to open a shop where customers could get the best cuts of meats and food. Mandell is a gold level certified in Angus beef.

“Today is our best day ever,” said Mandell fellow members of the Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce recently during a ribbon cutting ceremony at the restaurant.

The best day included plenty of customers buying meats, meals and delivery items.

“We focus on the customer and the product and we know it will grow,” said Mandell about the upcoming summer that they hope they will be able to survive until season starts.

Mandell and Schillig are also hoping that the restaurant becomes a place that people turn to for lunch provisions and catering.

“I have a deal worked out and customers will receive meats cheaper than Publix,” said Mandell who offers fresh meats, fresh baked bread daily and can arrange for a 5-star delivery service with metal tins.

“Pretty much we don’t say ‘no’ and we have yet to do that,” he said.

The guys are so focused on the customers that they keep two full-time employees on staff and decorated the shop with movie memorabilia.

“We are needed in Bonita Springs and we are growing ... we are strong,” Mandell said. “We are really about making people happy. We want to be that nice, respectable, clean neighborhood spot.”