jessie-and-zeke-trainum

Jessie & Zeke Trainum

Both were working at the Artful Dodge in the summer of 1999, Jessie was living on Old S High and had just finished her semester at JMU, many of her friends and roommates were gone for summer - one night she thought of this cute guy from work, tried calling around to a few friends to see who might have his number, but found no success. 

The next day at work she said to Zeke, “Hey ya know I tried to figure out your number last night, but I couldn’t.” 

To which he replied, “Why?” Thinking, ‘you were just gonna see me today at work.’ He then turned around and walked away. Coming back to her still standing there a few moments later (after hyping himself up in the kitchen), he asked, “Would you want to, like, get breakfast at the Little Grill sometime?” 

The date was set, and Jessie wrote a note for herself to wake up to that read: 

“B’fast @ 8 - Little Grill” 

However upon waking, Jessie found one of her remaining roommates watching TV alone in the living room, and thought it only right to invite her along. Plus as she said, “I wasn’t really sure I like liked him yet.” 

Zeke, seeing them walk in together, recalibrated his expectations thinking it must not be a date. Jessie then sat next to him (not her friend) at the booth. 

As they started dating, Jessie just tucked away the note instead of tossing it, finding it again much later and this time really keeping it on purpose. 

“It was pretty instantaneous,” Zeke said, “I think within a month of dating I was depositing my paychecks into her bank account.” 

In their defense, he had just returned from Papau New Guinea and didn’t have a bank account or know how to really get one 😉❤️

The pair were married around 2 years later in June of 2001. 

❤️❤️❤️💫

So much love to the Trainums for their love of the Grill over the years; we feel so lucky to have a piece of their love story include the Grill! Thank you for sharing your story with us!