{"id":71553,"date":"2022-09-11T15:12:09","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T15:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/09\/11\/veteran-finds-new-challenge-post-service-opening-a-restaurant\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:55:38","slug":"veteran-finds-new-challenge-post-service-opening-a-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/education-transition\/2022\/09\/11\/veteran-finds-new-challenge-post-service-opening-a-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran finds new challenge post-service \u2014 opening a restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Yarbrough has dabbled in a number of different careers since leaving active military duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since transitioning to the Florida Army National Guard near the end of a 14-year career in the military, Yarbrough has worked in financial services and banking, insurance and most recently as an IT specialist in business continuity and disaster recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But through all of those experiences, he struggled to settle down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can see I\u2019ve got a lot of experience across many different sectors, but I was always missing something, missing that thing,\u201d Yarbrough said. \u201cMaybe you can call it control, maybe call it the opportunity to be more impactful to people, so for the last handful of years, I\u2019ve been looking for opportunities to kind of get me out of the status quo and more into an ownership or true leadership position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no finer leadership than being an owner, because every responsibility ultimately comes back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yarbrough served in the Army from 1998 to 2013, through Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn before finishing up with the Florida National Guard<\/a> and was a disabled veteran. When he transitioned to the civilian world, his main challenge was finding something he enjoyed and sticking with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would get restless and start looking or learning the next thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m successful, by most people\u2019s metrics and I\u2019d say, \u2018Well, this really isn\u2019t fulfilling me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yarbrough found that new challenge in an industry that\u2019s taken a huge hit during the last three years, as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Veteran
Veteran Michael Yarbrough and his wife Tracy will open Grumpy’s Restaurant in Neputune Beach, Florida, in October 2022. (Courtesy Michael Yarbrough)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Through a conversation with a man he coached football with, Yarbrough and his wife, Tracy, learned about a restaurant chain in northeast Florida that sounded interesting. So Yarbrough, ever chasing his newest challenge, and his wife, who had some experience in the industry, went into the restaurant business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their venture, the third location of Grumpy\u2019s Restaurant<\/a>, a full-service American and Southern style diner chain, will open in Neptune Beach, Florida, on Oct. 3. It\u2019s been a challenging time for restaurants, as the repercussions from the pandemic sent many restaurants out of business as customers stayed home, the Great Resignation, and supply chain issues plaguing the country in all sorts of ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/path><\/g><\/g><\/g><\/svg><\/div>
View this post on Instagram<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/a>

A post shared by Grumpy\u2019s Restaurant (@grumpysrestaurant)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n