Midtown Grill owners Preston Bowen and Andrew Kelley opened the doors Thursday to their new location in Clarkesville.
The popular burger joint is now located at 160 Franklin Street. It’s housed in the old Asian donut shop next to Domino’s Pizza. Though slightly smaller than their previous location at the corner of Washington and Grant Streets, this location is much more accessible.
“We have much better parking. It’s a better experience for everybody. It looks more like what we’ve got in Cornelia, really, and it’s also more functional for us in the back,” says Bowen.
Relocating and recipes
It’s taken five years and three moves to get to this spot. Midtown Grill has opened and closed up shop at two other locations in Clarkesville since launching on Aug. 13, 2013.
The original grill sat near the corner of Washington and Morgan Streets in The Old Soda Fountain Cafe. With its throwback style counter and stools, and old-fashioned hand-dipped shakes, the first Midtown Grill had a nostalgic feel that customers enjoyed. But it was the burgers that kept them coming back.
Wild, crazy concoctions you wouldn’t dream of putting on a burger at home somehow blend into symphonies of delight. Pimento cheese and strawberry jam on the Clarkesville burger. Shrimp, yum yum and teriyaki sauce on the Tokyo burger. And, my personal favorite, teriyaki, grilled onions and peaches…yes, peaches,….on the Atlanta burger.
Where do these recipes come from?
“Sometimes he’ll start with ‘Let’s put this, this, and this on a burger’,” Kelley says of Bowen, “and I’ll say ‘Let’s add this, too’, and try it.” Sometimes the staff comes up with a new idea for a burger “and we’ll tweak it,” Bowen adds.
While Bowen’s the one you’re most likely to find manning the grill, you won’t find him in the kitchen at home. “We don’t cook at home,” he says. “At least, I don’t.”
“I cook at home but I don’t cook burgers,” says Kelley. That bodes well for his future wife. Kelley and his fiancée, Andrea Hensley of Gainesville, are getting married at the end of August.
It’s just the latest life change in the busy lives of these two young best friends and business partners.
An “unexpected” journey
When asked for a one word description of their experience in the five years since launching their restaurant Bowen says “unexpected”, Kelley sneaks in a hyphen and calls it “life-changing.” They never expected the business would grow as fast as it has.
They’ve gone from a two-man operation in 2013, to having ten full-time employees and several part-timers.
There have been plenty of other changes along the way.
In 2014, Bowen married “the love of his life” Hannah Carter. That same year, Kelley and Bowen were named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Habersham County Chamber of Commerce. In 2015, they opened Midtown Grill’s Cornelia location at 700 Business Highway 441 near Ethicon. In 2016, Bowen and his wife had a son.
One day, Kelley and Bowen hope to expand into other Northeast Georgia counties but, they say, give them time.
“People ask when are you moving to Gainesville, when are you moving to Hartwell, when are you moving to Clayton,” Kelley says. “We get comments like that all the time and it’s like, well, we want to make a little money in between our last move.” That last move he says, at least for awhile, is to their new location in Clarkesville. “It was out of necessity and opportunity,” Kelley says.
Now that their Clarkesville grand re-opening is behind them, Kelley and Bowen are looking forward to things settling down. They’re also looking forward to that wedding and to whatever other good awaits them on this unexpected journey.
Midtown Grill’s Clarkesville location is open Monday-Wednesday and Saturday from 11am-2:30pm. It’s open Thursday & Friday from 11am-8pm. The restaurant is closed Sunday.
Midtown Grill Cornelia is open Monday-Friday 11am–8pm, Saturday 11am–2:30pm, and is closed Sunday.
For more information, visit Midtown Grill online at www.1midtowngrill.com and follow them on Facebook.
