Closed Roadhouse Grill eateries to reopen with different styles, owners

BY: SCOTT BLAKE
DATE: June 23, 2008
PUBLICATION: FLORIDA TODAY

Plans are under way to open new restaurants in the Titusville and Melbourne buildings that were home to the now-bankrupt Roadhouse Grill, bringing activity to high-profile properties and restoring more than 150 jobs.

The Titusville restaurant is expected to reopen as a more Southern-style eatery and the Melbourne restaurant is expected to reopen as a sports bar.

Ken Adams, a restaurant entrepreneur from the Atlanta area, plans to reopen the Roadhouse Grill at 3355 Columbia Blvd. off Interstate 95 in Titusville this week, perhaps as early as today.

The restaurant will be renamed Roadhouse Grill South and feature more "country-style" items on the menu, replacing some of the pricier items offered at the former restaurant, Adams said.

He and his partner, Wendell Barnes, who was general manager at the Roadhouse Grill in Titusville, have been hiring many of the restaurant's former employees who lost their jobs when the restaurant closed.

Barnes said most of the roughly 60 employees are owed back pay by the restaurant's former owner, Roadhouse Grill Inc.

The West Palm Beach-based chain, which operated 37 restaurants in six states, received bankruptcy court approval to liquidate and go out of business in mid-May.

In court papers, Roadhouse said it couldn't repay its debtor to continue operating and was forced to terminate the leases of its remaining restaurants.

The chain was founded in 1992, and previously sought bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2002, when it received court approval to reorganize.

Representatives for Roadhouse Grill Inc. could not be reached for comment.

Adams, a former business associate of Roadhouse Grill Inc., said he has been finalizing a lease for the Titusville restaurant with the landlord, home improvement retailer Home Depot.

He said he hopes to reopen five former Roadhouse Grill eateries, including the one in Woodstock, Ga., that he already has reopened.

Adams said he plans to have his employees share in the restaurant's profits and wants to hear their thoughts on how the operation should run.

"All you have to do is listen to the employees to find out what the problems are," he said.

"As long as the employees are having fun and the customers are having fun, the profits will follow."

Meanwhile, another South Florida restaurant chain, Palm Beach Gardens-based Duffy's Sport Grill, plans to open at the former Roadhouse Grill at 1700 Evans Road in Melbourne, across the street from the Melbourne Square mall.

Duffy's owner Paul Emmett said he plans to open the restaurant by August.

It will offer burgers, pasta, wings, sandwiches, steaks and seafood.

Emmett said he visited the vacant restaurant last week to see what changes need to be made to the building's interior and take his crew that has been working on the restaurant out to lunch.

Duffy's has signed a 20-year lease on the property with the landlord, whom Emmett described as "an individual from New York City."

Emmett said he hopes to fill an untapped niche for an upscale sports bar in that area of Melbourne.

"We plan to fill the place up with plasma TVs," Emmett said. "We are very excited. We really believe that Melbourne is devoid of anything like this. It's hard to find a decent sports bar within 30 miles of your city. We really think we're going to kill them up here."

Emmett said the restaurant's former employees are welcome to apply for jobs with his company.

"We welcome people to come back and work," he added. "We haven't started hiring yet."