Damon's Grill

Damon's Grill & Sports Bar

Type	Private
Industry	Dining
Founded	1979
Headquarters	Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Employees	200+
Website	http://www.damons.com

Damon's Grill, Ann Arbor, MI

Damon's Grill & Sports Bar was founded in 1979 by Irv Rossman, Jerry Rossman, Sam Massara, Joe Mazzola, and Joe Nader and is currently headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Restaurants are usually sectioned into two separate parts: The dining room, and the clubhouse with bar. There are currently 45 franchised locations in the United States, including restaurants in Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, as well as three in the United Kingdom.

Menu

A menu at a Damon's Restaurant typically features barbecue ribs, a main focus, steaks, wings, sandwiches, as well as a variety of appetizers and desserts.

Dining atmosphere

Damon's franchises are often split into two different areas each with their own atmosphere and ambiance. The first of the two, is the clubhouse. The clubhouse area of the restaurant is themed like a sports bar with walls covered in sports memorabilia. The memorabilia usually correlates to sports teams in the area. (For example, the Damon's Grill in State College, Pennsylvania is decorated in Penn State memorabilia) The clubhouses' main feature is their large, projection screen televisions. Each restaurant usually has one to four televisions, and most franchises usually designate a television to the Buzztime network. This allows patrons to go head-to-head in a trivia competition while eating their meals. Mainly, the televisions are used to broadcast sporting events. Damon's Restaurants are often crowded during College Football or National Football League games. Clubhouses also include a bar area with several smaller televisions.

The second of the two areas is the dining room. Dining rooms are quieter areas for patrons to enjoy their meals. These areas often include small televisions so that guests may watch sports in a quieter setting.

There are a few franchises that do not follow this model. Locations in Sandusky, Ohio and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina are situated on bodies of water, the Sandusky location is on Lake Erie and the Myrtle Beach location is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Because of their location both restaurants have a nautical theme and have more of an upscale atmosphere. The Sandusky location (along with the Willoughby, Twinsburg, Middleburg Heights, Independence, and Mentor locations) is now closed.

Recent

Damon's last Columbus Ohio location will be closing at the end of December 2010. Damon's Grill launched a brand new menu in October 2010 and are in the process of rebranding the chain to Damon's Grill & Sports Bar. Stores are being upgraded one by one at this time. ^[1] In the year 2011 several stores in Ohio have closed. This includes stores in Independence and Stowe. More recently the stores located in Canton, Middleburg Heights and Sandusky have also been shut down, leaving only 6 stores remaining in the state. In addition, according to cleveland.com, Damon's has refused to pay their employees their final paychecks, and have not been paying sales tax on food sales in Ohio.

English franchise

An English franchise was setup in the late 1980s and is known simply as "Damons" instead of Damon's Grill. The main restaurant and head office are based in Lincoln, while two other restaurants operate in Sheffield and Liverpool. A fourth restaurant was opened in Derby but closed in the summer of 2008. Unlike its American cousin, the English establishments are set out in American 1950s theme, with wait staff wearing a tuxedo-style uniform.

References

1. ^ Eaton, Dan (2007-06-01). "Damon's prototype steps into the light". Business First of Columbus. http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/06/04/story3.html?b=1180929600^1470716. Retrieved 2007-06-05. 

External links

• Official Site
• UK Site