Chip and Amanda Dunham opened Magnolia & May two years ago, the May after the pandemic began. It might not have been an ideal time, particularly as distancing restrictions curtailed the number of people in the small restaurant, but these are better days.

The couple tried opening for lunch early on, but that was hard for all kinds of reasons found on the pandemic challenge list. Chief among them: Staffing.

Magnolia & May’s Chip Dunham talks about what his new restaurant is doing during COVID

But enter Gannon Hamilton, a well-known and respected chef who’s known the Dunhams for years as he worked at The Grove Grill, which Chip’s father, Jeff Dunham, owned.

With him on board, now Magnolia & May is open for lunch Thursday and Friday.

We stopped in last week to grab a bite, say hello and secure the pimento cheese recipe requested by a reader (watch out for it Saturday).

It turns out we sat at the table that was, if not in the exact spot, within a foot or two of where Dunham’s grandfather’s desk sat for years. The building was previously his insurance agency, and the family still owned the old place, tucked in that short strip of Mt. Moriah Road just north of Gibson’s Donuts, behind Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken (and behind the part of Williamsburg Village getting ready to meet the bulldozer).

They gutted the building and created a restaurant, which despite bad pandemic timing was also good personal timing. The elder Dunham was mostly ready to close The Grove Grill anyway; COVID cinched the decision, and the family rallied around getting Magnolia & May ready.

But it’s Chip and Amanda’s show; Jeff Dunham is a co-owner and says he helps out some with prep work and will work the line if needed, but he keeps his distance other than to tend the tomatoes, sunflowers and herbs growing in the sunny beds around the restaurant.

Hamilton, who was working for Wolf River Brisket and ready to get back to a smaller kitchen, started working at Magnolia & May last month. While he credits the elder Dunham with setting him on a culinary career path when he worked at The Grove Grill, Hamilton spent a large chunk of his career working with Mac Edwards at The Farmer and the short-lived Brooks Pharm2Fork.

After more than 22 years, The Grove Grill has closed

The Magnolia & May menu is Chip Dunham’s, but the two plan to work together and some of Hamilton’s recipes from The Farmer could end up on the menu; can anyone say brown butter cauliflower? Louder?

But the menu at M&M is already seasonal and has changed since my last visit. Watching the smoker on the patio hard at work, we opted for a pastrami sandwich, made from meat right off the smoker, topped with jalapeno cheese sauce and barbecue chips.

We didn’t realize the chips were actually on the sandwich — we thought they were a side. But now you know and you can do your thing. I like potato chips on a sandwich, but on a soft one, something like tuna or a school-day ham and cheese that can use a little crunch. This big sandwich, piled high with meat and served on pumpernickel, didn’t need them. But they were also OK; just know.

The fresh-cut fries we ordered for a side were everything you want in an order of fries — crunchy bits, some soft fries mixed with harder ones, short fries, long fries.

We also order a grilled chicken club, which is served on a nice burger bun and is piled high with a very tender and flavorful grilled chicken breast, avocado, bacon (very crisp; nice), lettuce, tomato and Cajun mayo. For a side: Fried green tomatoes that were heavily coated and exceptionally crisp. They should be called fancy fried tomatoes, and they were delicious.

The lunch menu includes six sandwiches, including the vegetarian grilled squash with feta cheese and curry aioli, tacos and a burrito, mushroom pasta, salmon, shrimp and grits, a patty melt and a double cheeseburger.

Appetizers include foie gras toast, Buffalo broccoli (an answer to wings and a step beyond cauliflower), charcuterie and the pimento cheese mentioned above, which comes with a selection of house pickles. There are also four salads and about a dozen sides; if you’re so inclined, you can build your own vegetable plate from those.

Magnolia & May, 718 Mt. Moriah Road, is open for lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Thursday and Friday. Other hours are: 4-10 p.m., Tuesday through Friday (though, like most places, it will close early on slow nights so call ahead if you’re planning to stop in after 8:30 p.m. or so during the week); 11 a.m.-10 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Call 901-676-8100.