JOHN COFFELT Contributor

Murdock Café, a bistro-style dining establishment, will open as early as January at the Arnold Golf Course, near Tullahoma on Arnold Air Force Base.

The restaurant is the newest venture by the trio of investors, managers and aspiring golfers that operate Boskey’s Grill and Murdock’s Restaurant at McMinnville’s Country Club.

“We are most proud of the number of people that we employ,” said owning partner John Richardson. “Right now we employ 46 people. To me that’s an impact on our community. We’re all local guys.”  

Owning partner GM and chef, Marshall Murdock said that the AEDC location will be a quick order, lunch menu, rather than the Boskey’s dinner menu of hand cut steaks, pasta or chicken.

“This will be more of a quick service restaurant where people can call ahead, order it, especially if on base, and we’ll have it ready when they get here,” Murdock said.

“We’re doing sandwiches, quesadilla and soup. Just really quick items they can come and get in a hurry,” he said.

The menu will cater to golfers, and like with the McMinnville menu, the offering will grow with the business. All restaurants are open to the public. 

Murdock developed the menu at Boskey’s in 2007. That was then the front and back of a single page, now it’s a six page menu. But for now, Murdock Café will remain small.

“We’re going in small, growing our business and growing or menu with our clientele,” he said.

Partner Roel Srofe and Richardson began their journeys into the restaurant business as customers who loved the food.

“We remembered Marshall in 2007 when he was there,” Richardson said.  “The acquisition came with Boskey’s. That’s momma. We were able to get Marshall back in.”

One of the other partners opted out, and Murdock was introduced as a full partner.

“I guess our forte is moos, booze and bogies, Richardson said. “It’s steaks, fine bourbon and spirits and golf.”

 “We are local guys and we wanted to be a part of the community. Obvioulsy it’s a business… but if we can find a way to support the business and grow the business. We still try to maintain that local business mentality,” Srofe said.

Richardson said that with the parent restaurants, the food is worth the wait.

“We pride ourselves on quality,” he said. “With us, (Murdock) is hand cutting stakes, hand cutting pork chops. Stuff is being made from scratch every day.”

Murdock grill will be quicker, but the owners say that the same attention to quality will be there.

As far as the trio’s golf game, Srofe confided that “none of us are really that good at golf, we just really like partnering with the golf courses because we like to support local. We’ve found a niche here that Marshall is really successful at.”