Prescient, Mike Searcy is. Textbook prescient. Put-his-photo-next-to-the-word-in-the-dictionary prescient.

When he saw the lot at 383 29 Road soon after declining to pursue another lot that someone had told him would be “the best place to put a Munchies” restaurant, Searcy knew he was looking at the actual “best place.”

On that lot immediately to the south of the Golden Gate Convenience Store on one corner of the 29 Road and D Road intersection, his search for the Grand Junction home of Munchies Burgers ended. Then, the plans to buy the land and build the second Munchies owned by Searcy and his wife, Kimberly, commenced.

Grand Junction-based Bemis Built Construction broke ground April 4 of this year to build the 6,800-square-foot restaurant. And on Nov. 19 the Searcys announced on Facebook the restaurant was open for business.

“Go 10 minutes in any direction,” Mike Searcy said, “and that services about 50,000 people.”

That population base, he said, is three times what Munchies Pizza & Deli in Fruita draws from, and the Grand Junction location does not have as much competition from nearby restaurants as the Fruita location does.

The intersection of 29 and D roads is undeniably busy with Golden Gate on one corner and a Maverik gas station and convenience store on another corner.

The traffic is bountiful for a restaurant to thrive, especially one that has the favorable reputation Munchies has built since it opened as a doughnut shop in 1980. Mike and Kimberly bought the restaurant in 1999, and Mike said his parents owned Munchies from 1982 to 1996.

But it wasn’t the reputation that brought Sara and David Kilgore, Jim and Robin Whatley, and Matteo and Madison Vattano to the Grand Junction Munchies on Day 14 of it being open for business.

Each couple gave the same reason for stopping at the restaurant, words that confirmed the foresight of Mike Searcy, who is known by friends as Munchie Mike.

The Kilgores, according to Sara Kilgore, “live down the road and saw it was open and said, ‘Hey, let’s go!’”

Robin Whatley said, “We live just off 32 Road and were looking for a new place to eat, and this was convenient.”

Continuing the refrain, Matteo Vattano said, “We live just down the street on 29 Road and had been watching, driving by and saw it finally was open.”

Of course, a great location means little if the restaurant’s food doesn’t generate repeat business.

All three couples indicated they will be back.

“Oh yeah,” Sara Kilgore said. “We’re planning our next meal right now.”

She and David brought their son, Pete, with them that day, but daughter Kirsten couldn’t make it, to which Sara said, “She needs to come try it.”

Jim Whatley said his salisbury steak is “very good, real good.”

Robin Whatley took the first bite into her patty melt, then said, “Yeah, it’s very good.” After her second bite she offered, “Most excellent.”

Madison Vattano said of her double cheeseburger, “It’s great. I’m so excited. And the price!”

Matteo Vattano echoed the price sentiment, saying, “It’s hard to find a burger under $10. My burger was under 10 bucks, both of them were.”

And his opinion about the bacon burger he ate was summed up with this: “I’m very impressed with the beef. I’ve got to ask them where they get their beef.”

Those are the reviews the Searcys hoped to get when they decided to build a second Munchies and put it in Grand Junction. That was something Mike said he has wanted to do for a long time, but other needs got in the way.

The original Munchies in Fruita was at 319 W. Aspen Ave., and Mike said, “We needed to build a new location in Fruita first.”

The Fruita Munchies now resides at 550 Kokopelli Blvd., it’s home since February 2019.

The dream of the second location began to dim after the Covid pandemic wreaked havoc in 2020 and 2021. Mike was in his early 50s then and said he turned an eye toward semi-retirement, but Kimberly wasn’t ready to do the same, so Mike reassessed his future.

Now, at 54 years old with two Munchies restaurants to run, retirement looks farther away instead of closer.

Being prescient, he probably knew that was going to happen.