Three childhood friends have opened a new restaurant that offers fresh food, a family-friendly atmosphere and some sports memories.
Gameday Live, located in the former Tre Ragazzi’s space at the back of Gadsden Mall, had a soft opening on July 30 and an official ribbon-cutting on August 9. On social media, diners are already praising the restaurant’s food, service and atmosphere.
The Sports Grill—the partners are careful to use that term rather than “sports bar”—is the brainchild of restaurant veterans Tim Bowman and Jon Simmons (and his wife Laura Lee Simmons) and Buddy Mitchell. It is the first franchise offshoot of the original Gameday Live in Woodstock, Georgia.
Bowman, Mitchell and Simmons have known each other since second grade and all three played football at Southside High School, where they graduated in 1984.
Bowman and Mitchell stayed in the Gadsden area while Simmons moved after college (most recently to Canton, Georgia). However, the three of them meet up with other former classmates every year for a few golf outings. That’s where serious discussions about working together began.
“Jon and I always talked about the need to do something together,” said Bowman, who has restaurant experience at Red Lobster and the Gadsden Country Club and managed catering at The Masters golf tournament for seven years.
“Buddy said, ‘Let’s make something happen,’ and that’s how it all came about,” he said.
More: Tre Ragazzi’s Italian Café closes location in Gadsden Mall
Simmons has owned fast-food restaurants for over 30 years and had originally eyed Gameday Live’s sister restaurant in Canton, Canyons Fresh Grill, as a possible model.
“Jon said we should drive over and eat there (Canyon’s). That was a good idea, and we did,” Mitchell said. “But he found this sports grill in Woodstock and said we needed to change direction.”
Canyon’s is more of a place to order, Simmons said, and offers burgers, chicken wings and salads, as well as a full bar.
Gameday Live is a full-service restaurant where the bar is not the dominant element, but the sports theme is present with numerous televisions for fans to watch the games on. The Gadsden location features murals of athletes on the walls – coaches Paul Bryant and Pat Dye, Joe Namath and Howard Cosell (by Florida artist Matt Kress, who has worked with Major League Baseball and NFL teams).
Simmons said he was looking at a site in the Atlanta area, Mitchell said the beach was a possibility, but Bowman, who has contacts at City Hall, urged looking at Gadsden.
Mitchell said this led to a discussion about the location of Tre Ragazzi, which has been vacant since the restaurant closed last year.
“We had never thought about it,” he said, “and when we first came here, we didn’t like it. But when we came back, we didn’t like it any less, and we came back again and started talking about the possibilities of this place.”
Simmons said the city courted them and conversations with Mayor Craig Ford and his staff convinced them “that we need to be here … the vision of the city is why we wanted to come here.”
Bowman noted that working with the city “couldn’t have been easier” and that their help saved them up to a month of time to open the restaurant.
“Gameday is exactly what we were looking for in Gadsden,” said John Moore, the city’s director of economic development and government affairs. “The location made sense because it was in the middle of the bowling alley and movie theater, with great food and an exciting atmosphere. This will continue to be our focus to bring fun entertainment options back to the city of Gadsden.”
Ford said, “Little by little, each new experiential business like this helps strengthen our local economy while creating a unique place to gather and enjoy the company of friends, family and neighbors. To me, that’s the meaning of community.”
According to Mitchell, Gadsden Mall manager Kaylie Johnson was also “instrumental” in the effort and welcomed the concept “with open arms.”
He added: “The moment we told her our idea for the restaurant, she said, ‘This is what we want here’ and did everything she could to help us.”
Johnson said it’s not just the opening of another restaurant in Gadsden, but the local owner brings a culture of family and friends never seen in the city before.
Most importantly, of course, is the food. The menu offers a selection of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, chicken wings and tenders, salads and wraps, as well as some Tex-Mex dishes like quesadillas and tacos.
“Everything is fresh,” Bowman said. “Our dips, dressings, salsa and queso are made fresh daily.”
All of the beef is 100 percent certified Black Angus, Simmons said, and is also fresh and never frozen.
Gameday Live uses grouper for its fish sandwiches, fish and chips and fish tacos, which partners say is unusual for a sports grill.
The appetizer list is also unique: the usual mozzarella sticks and fried pickles are joined by sticky shrimp (covered in Korean barbecue sauce), pork rinds and queso, pretzels and beer cheese, and jalapeño cheese curds.
You can dine on the patio and there is an adjacent green space with cornhole boards for kids to play on. There are also plans to have music there on the weekends.
Mitchell reiterated the intention to make the restaurant family-friendly. Not that they wouldn’t open a bar, but a restaurant that happens to have a bar.
However, there is Back Forty’s own brand of beer, Smokeneck 84, which they “can’t keep in stock,” he said. The brew was actually renamed Beach Cat Blonde, but the new logo reflects both a popular nickname for Southside High and the owners’ graduation year, and is available on T-shirts.
Additional t-shirts and merchandise are available, which (with 100% of the proceeds) will fund another of the partners’ projects, Backpack Brands. The project was created to give back to the community by providing backpacks and school supplies to local students. The partners also plan to donate a portion of their profits and hold fundraisers for this cause.
Gameday Live is open Sunday to Thursday from 11am to 10pm and Friday and Saturday from 11am to 10.30pm. It can be found online at www.facebook.com/gamedaygadsden.
