Spurrier's Gridiron Grille and Visor's, its rooftop bar, will not only be Gainesville's first polished casual dining establishment, but also double as a museum (if not shrine) to the greatest Gator of them all.
Spurrier's Gridiron Grille: Good Food, Memorabilia, Visors, Ball Plays ... and a Game Plan
Wednesday, June 9, 2021 | General, Football, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As the touring party of three bounced from one spacious room to the next, Steve Spurrier was reminded of an idea that had come to him recently. An addition for the bar upstairs. His bar at his restaurant. Spurrier pitched it to Freddie Wehbe, managing partner.
"Hey Freddie! Let's get a chair that says 'HBC' and put it there at the bar next to one that says 'Mrs. HBC,' and people can sit there with their wife or girlfriend," the "Head Ball Coach" said. "Then they can say, 'Hey, we sat in the HBC chairs!' "
His chairs.
With a caveat.
"But if I'm coming in that night, I'll call ahead and let 'em know," Spurrier added. "I'm gonna want to sit in my chair, right?"
Right. But the HBC also is right that the patrons will want to park themselves in the spots reserved for he and wife Jerri. In the bigger picture, football fans of all types — yes, Florida fans, specifically — are going to want to check out Spurrier's Gridiron Grille, an ambitious and unique eating and drinking establishment in the Celebration Pointe development just across Interstate-75, tentatively set to open in late July.
Spanning 18,600 square feet, costing an estimated $11 million, Spurrier's will be home to a downstairs restaurant featuring an immersive experience of elevated dining the likes of which will be a first for Gainesville, as well as an outdoor rooftop bar, called Visors, that will overlook the Celebration Pointe promenade and entertainment venue. Memorabilia, including Spurrier's 1966 Heisman Trophy, the jersey he wore as University of Florida quarterback his senior year, the shoe that famously kicked the field goal to beat Auburn that 1966 season, a plethora of Southeastern Conference championship stuff from those 12 incomparable seasons coaching the Gators, as well as photos and nostalgic items either on display throughout the joint or woven into the Gator-themed menu.
Have a seat, folks, and enjoy the Ike Hilliard Catch of the Day. Or maybe the Chicken & Wuerffel. And wash it down with one of the fancy specialty drinks, like the sure-fire, big-seller 52-20. Get it?
"We've done everything right to succeed," Wehbe said. "You know Coach. He didn't get into this to fail."
The 18,600-square foot restaurant and bar is located in the expanding Celebration Pointe development, just west of Interstate-75.
It was a decade or so ago that Spurrier's daughter, Amy, took measure of the glut of trophies and trinkets her father had gathered over the years — much of it scattered and jammed into closets throughout their homes in Gainesville, Columbia, S.C. and Crescent Beach, Fla. — and made an off-the-cuff suggestion that he needed a place to put them all.
Like a restaurant.
Little did she know.
"This is grander than anything my family ever could have dreamed of," Amy Moody said. "We were pitching something, maybe in Crescent Beach, where things could be on display, but this is 10 times what we could have imagined."
Got the HBC-guided tour of @SpurriersGG today. Whoa!
Spurrier stepped down as coach at South Carolina in 2015 and eight months later returned to UF as an "ambassador" and consultant for the University Athletic Association. A mere handful of the memorabilia accompanied Spurrier to his small office in the third-floor communications department at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, but along with the rest still needed a more permanent and appropriate home. Freddie Wehbe
In time, Spurrier had a conversation with Wehbe, a restaurant entrepreneur who came to town in 1994, bought a Domino's and turned it into 11 stores, making his local pizza business one of the most successful Domino's franchises in the country. After selling his pizza shops, Wehbe formed a marketing and consulting firm and eventually approached Celebration Pointe developer and former UF basketball player Svein Dyrkolbotn, along with local marketing expert Ryan Frankel, to begin strategizing how to make a Spurrier restaurant not just a reality, but a success.
The industry, of course, is high risk. There are no guarantees, not matter how big the name on the marquee. For every Elway's (in Denver), Troy's (as in Aikman, in Dallas), or The Woods (as in Tiger, in Jupiter, Fla.) that succeed, there are 10 times more that have gone under, including the likes of Mickey Mantle's (New York), Harry Caray's (Chicago), Bernie Kosar's (Cleveland), Dan Marino's (South Florida), Bobby Bowden's (Tallahassee) and Vince Carter's (Daytona Beach). Just last year, Wayne Gretzky's Toronto closed its doors after 27 years, an admirable run. The pandemic also was not kind to the Shula's Steak House franchises around the country, including in Gainesville, with rumors swirling in the industry the franchise is on the brink.
"We've done everything to be financially sustainable and successful. Restaurants have a very high rate of failure. Celebrity restaurants have an even higher rate of failure," Wehbe said. "We visited celebrity restaurants around the country and overseas the last two years to try and learn what to do and not to do. Failure is not an option."
Added Spurrier, now 76: "You've got to have a game plan. We think we've got one. I like to say, 'I don't have much experience building a bad team.' "
The restaurant's elevated-cuisine menu will feature a handful of Gator-themed items.
Wehbe estimates the marketing team sank close to $1 million into its advance research. What it found was Gainesville had just a handful of restaurants considered to be in the high-end, fine-dining category (such as Mark's Prime, Embers, Dragonfly, Prime & Pearl, Amelia's), followed by a bevy of so-called fast casual options, such as Friday's, Bahama Breeze, Appleby's and the like. What was missing was something in between. Polished casual, as it is known. Something big enough, but nice enough that offered popular, elevated cuisine, in the mold of (think Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville) Season's 52, J. Alexander's and Stonewood Grille & Tavern.
The data also showed the market lacked a venue large enough to host private gatherings, be it for graduations or football game tailgates, and would welcome an outdoor, elevated establishment that took advantage of the weather.
The vision for Spurrier's Gridiron Grille was hatched.
Visor's rooftop bar's namesake
* Between the downstairs Grille and the rooftop Visors bar, Spurrier's will be large enough to accommodate nearly 500 patrons and can convert to as many as five private dining rooms. One of the dining areas, the Bull Gator private room, will double as a museum, with Spurrier's Heisman (and guest appearances from Danny Wuerffel's and Tim Tebow's trophies, as well), championship rings, award plaques, etc. The rooftop bar will overlook Celebration Pointe's outdoor promenade and entertainment square that includes an area for live music.
* Marketing surveys broke down how the Gainesville community prefers its food. The menu will reflect as much and offer a variety of meat, poultry, seafood — all farm-to-table or freshly caught the same day — and vegetarian dishes. Most entries will be in the $20 to $35 range, but there will be higher-end options of up to $60 for what they're branding as polished American food, with some international flavor sprinkled in. A designated take-out counter on the side of the building is expected to generate a third of the business's revenue. Note: Don't leave without an order of Jerri Spurrier's scrumptious chocolate chip cookies, the same ones she used to bake for players on their birthdays.
* A downstairs, glassed-in studio will host local radio shows and podcasts, including Dan Mullen and Mike White's coaches' shows, starting in the 2021-22 athletic season. The SEC Network's Paul Finebaum already has committed to coming to town for a week of shows, while ESPN will be in the house for the Florida-Alabama run-up in September. On-site use of the studio will be free, though subject to availability.
* A couple wall displays will line up a bevy of head ware associated with Spurrier's career, as well as his leisure life. A wall of helmets includes his time at Science Hill High in Johnson City, Tenn., plus the San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, USFL Tampa Bay Bandits, South Carolina Gamecocks, the Orlando Apollos, and, yes, even the Washington Redskins Football Team. When exiting the elevator upstairs at Visors, customers will be greeted by a wall of — guess what? — visors, both from Spurrier's teams as well as hundreds of golf courses he's played around the world
* Make sure (seriously) to visit the rest rooms (even if you don't have to), which are wall-papered with a barrage of Spurrier's most famous "ball plays," from Terry Dean-to-Jack Jackson (Alabama, '93 SEC Championship Game), Wuerffel-to-Reidel Anthony (4th-and-12 at Tennessee '96), and Doug Johnson-to-Jacquez Green pass (Florida State '97). Yes, the plays are in the ladies' room, too.
* One of the private dining areas ("The Championship Room") will be decorated with portraits by former Gators linebacker James Bates, whose distinctive folk art has become wildly popular all over town and is well known among Gator Nation. He's doing one of each of the 19 Florida coaches (throw in men's tennis's Bryan Shelton, as of last weekend) to win a national championship.
"I've been to Ditka's place in Chicago and a lot of other cool restaurants around the country, but I just love the way they've taken the stages of Coach Spurrier's life — going all the way back to Science Hill High — and made the effort to put it all on display," said Bates, also commissioned to do the restaurant's artwork and text for the children's menu. "It's going to be a Gator fan Mecca."
That's the plan, yes.
"Freddie and our team have researched how successful restaurants operate, and the goal is to do it the way the top restaurants have done it. We know it's a business that can be really good and really bad, but I like the group we've put together and I like our location — Celebration Pointe, where Gators go to celebrate," Spurrier said. "We know we have to have really good food and excellent service, and we think we've got that in place to make it all go."
His 1966 Heisman Trophy will be the big-ticket item on display, but hardly the only item at Steve Spurrier's restaurant and bar.
When Spurrier returned to UF in his ambassador role five years ago he extolled the excitement of being back and part of a team again. Given that it's his name on the restaurant, it's only fair to say it's his team.
"When we got started, even in talking to Jerri, we talked about their legacy here," Wehbe said. "Our plan is to always be here, to keep it going and keep the Spurrier name alive."
So get ready to belly up and settle in at this HBC-inspired landmark.
Preferably, if you're lucky, in one of his chairs.
