I’ve written before about Juan’s Mexican Grill & Bar in Chesterfield, the restaurant inside a former Ben Franklin store that’s become my favorite spot. When Juan’s announced that it had purchased another local institution -Gaston’s venerable Mill Street Inn- I was intrigued! The new place was closer to my house, but the real question was whether it could capture the magic of the original. It took me a couple of visits to find out, but I think it did. In fact, it even improved on it.
Gaston’s Mill Street Inn opened in 1985 on the site of an old sawmill that dated back to the 1860s1. The restaurant was the brainchild of Evelyn and Bill Marsh, who brought nearly two decades of experience operating Pizza King locations around Greenfield2. I’ve even read that Mill Street Inn itself began life as a Pizza King3! When Gaston’s only other restaurant closed, the Marshes saw an opportunity to fill a growing need4. Instead of sticking solely to pizza, they expanded the menu with home-style favorites like baked steak, pork chops, chicken and noodles, ham and beans, and other similar dishes5.
Mill Street Inn was a Gaston institution for forty years. Then came the surprise: Juan’s bought it in October 20256. The news seemed to come out of nowhere! After all, Gaston sits nearly twenty miles up the interstate from Juan’s home base in Chesterfield, roughly connected by a stretch of I-69 that doesn’t really scream natural expansion. That said, the die was cast. After several months of renovations, the restaurant reopened as Juan’s Mill Street Place on February 11, 20267.
I was thrilled! I first went in April for my brother’s birthday, and we quickly discovered that Juan’s Mill Street Place is unlike any other restaurant we’d been to. Rather than completely replacing what came before, the owners created an impressive array of menus: it serves the Mexican meals my brother and I rave about, along with Pizza King pizza and many of the comfort-food favorites that made Mill Street Inn a local institution. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of my food during that first visit so I couldn’t review it. The other day, I was finally ready to compare the place to its older sibling.
The foyer at Juan’s Mill Street Place seems like a collision between two different concepts. Sitting near the entrance is the same All Star capsule vending machine found at Juan’s in Chesterfield, but much of the surrounding décor seems to have survived from the Mill Street Inn era. A decorative “Farm to Fork” plate hangs nearby. A lengthy old saw adorns the wall. A chalkboard declares that “Life is Better on the Farm” in flowing wine-mom script. Scattered among them are various rustic knickknacks and boho doodads. It’s a mix of small-town diner, country farmhouse, and Mexican restaurant, just like the menu.
I ate at Mill Street Inn once or twice after bike rides along the Cardinal Greenway, and the place has changed dramatically since those days. Gone are the wood wall panels, round tables, and spindle-back Windsor chairs that once populated your grandma’s house. In their place are wooden benches and hefty rectangular tables with decorative inlaid scenes. Old wood-paneled walls now burst with bright greens and reds. The transformation doesn’t stop there: elaborate murals, signs, and decorative pieces seem to cover many of the available surfaces! While the Gaston location may not be quite as over-the-top as Juan’s flagship restaurant in Chesterfield, it’s hardly understated. I’m sure there’s some central company that supplies decorations like Juan’s.
We were seated almost immediately. Before my family even had much time to look around, a basket of chips and two bowls of salsa appeared on the table. The salsa struck me as noticeably different from the version served at Juan’s in Chesterfield: it was thinner, with more pepper and a little extra kick. As it turned out, that wasn’t a drawback at all- it was great! I found myself reaching for chip after chip. Our waitress had taken our drink orders when she dropped off the chips and salsa and quickly returned to take our meal selections. The attentive service was already a marked improvement over every single experience I’ve ever had at Juan’s in Chesterfield.
I ordered the Arroz con Pollo. Since it’s my standard order at Juan’s, it provided the perfect benchmark for a head-to-head comparison with the Chesterfield spot. As far as I could tell, the two dishes were nearly identical. The rice at Gaston was slightly drier, and Chesterfield serves its tortillas on a separate plate rather than alongside the meal. Beyond that, I struggled to find any meaningful differences. Not that it mattered, though- the food was excellent!
The chicken was tender and flavorful, cooked just enough to stay juicy without becoming dry. Quantities were generous across the board even though I’d chosen the lunch portion, and the rice eagerly soaked up every bit of the creamy white cheese sauce from my three-dip special. Each bite seemed better than the last, especially once everything mingled together on the plate. By the time I scraped up the final forkful, I was completely stuffed! As I sat there surveying the aftermath, I briefly wondered whether I should head home immediately or find a corner for a quick nap first.
Sucker for tomatillos that I am, I ordered the enchiladas verdes at my first visit to Juan’s in Gaston a few months ago. They, too, were great. I didn’t take any pictures, but I stopped by with Brett Yoder of Hoosier Gym Journey yesterday and got the Pollo Supremo- Grilled chicken strips, onions, and mushroom simmered in white cheese and served with lettuce, guacamole, tomato, rice, beans, and tortillas. Fortunately, I didn’t get the pooping disease, cyclosporiasis.
If what I ate was any indication, Juan’s Mill Street Place is a success. The restaurant has managed to preserve the welcoming spirit that made Mill Street Inn a local favorite, but brings the food that made Juan’s famous to Gaston. That’s a combination that’s hard to argue with! I assumed there’d be some culture shock with an ethnic restaurant opening in a small Indiana town home to just 800 people, but then I remembered the old Mexican joints my Dad and I used to hit in Amish country. Everyone loves Mexican food! Fortunately, Juan’s has another winner on its hands.
Sources Cited
1 Hillman, R. (1985, November 24). New Restaurant Open in Gaston. The Muncie Star. p. 19.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 Baer, D. (1990, November 23). Restaurant review. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 11.
4 (See footnote 3).
5 Spath, C. (2007, January 3). Favorite dishes keep Mill Street Inn fans coming back. The Muncie Star Press. p. 17.
6 Baer, D. (1990, November 23). Restaurant review. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 11.
7 Parcel 0233430011000 (2026). Office of the Assessor. Delaware County [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved June 16, 2026.
9 Gaston Main Street Church Lost Muncie (2026, February 11). We had a great evening at Juan’s Mill Street place Grand Opening!! Special thanks to Pastor David Cline from Gaston Main [Status]. Facebook.
