Decatur, GA — Bench Warmers, a local sports grill chain, will celebrate the grand opening of its Decatur location on Saturday, April 20.

Bench Warmers opened in 2000 at the corner of Briarcliff Road and Clairmont Road, and one of the owners, Jim Hancock, previously said the original location will “eventually … become a victim of redevelopment.”

“But we plan to keep that location going also, at least until they redevelop the property,” Hancock previously said. “We also have a location in Stockbridge, which opened in 2005.”

Hancock opened the Highlander in the early 1990s but sold the restaurant in 1995. Later, he began doing commercial real estate and had rental properties near Briarcliff and Clairmont Roads. He became a frequent visitor of Sidelines at the time.

Eventually, the owners of Sidelines sold that location to Hancock, and he turned it into Bench Warmers.

Knowing the Clairmont location would be closing, Bench Warmers saw an opportunity to move to Decatur when Taco Mac abruptly closed without explanation in September 2023 after 22 years in business, saying only the restaurant’s lease was expiring.

“I called my real estate agent the first day it was closed and said that this would be an ideal place for another location and this is a community and area that I feel attached to, and jumped at the chance to get into it,” Hancock said.

The restaurant celebrated its soft opening on April 6. They opened for just food service while waiting to get their alcohol license and used it as time to train the staff. Bench Warmers received its alcoholic beverage license from Decatur on April 15 and the license from the state on April 16.

Bench Warmers will have about 20 beers on tap, as well as seltzers, and craft liquors.

Burgers and wings tend to be the most popular items at Bench Warmers, which is a scratch kitchen.

“We take pride in our food,” Hancock told Decaturish. “Our mission is to exceed expectations. The first step is to make sure we give you the service, and we give you the taste.”

Bench Warmers also offers shareable appetizers like wings or buffalo chicken dip and the pasta-rella sticks, which is a mozzarella stick with al dente pasta around it that’s coated in breadcrumbs. Bench Warmers’ kitchen manager came up with the idea.

Hancock and his team are hoping to create a rustic environment in Decatur. The inside looks a little bit different now. Instead of TVs at every booth, there are TVs all along the perimeter of the dining room playing various sporting events.

“What I tried to gear [it toward] is from every seat in the restaurant you have access to every game,” Hancock said. “It doesn’t always work, but that’s what we try to do.”

Each Bench Warmer’s location is also a little different from the others. Hancock doesn’t want each location to be “cookie cutter.”

“I think this location has the potential to have a great personality, a unique setting [that’s] a warm, rustic environment,” Hancock said.

To see the restaurant’s menu, click here. To see the restaurant’s reviews on Yelp, click here.

Bench warmers is located at 240 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. Starting April 20, Bench Warmers will be open Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Hancock said the late night hours would give employees of other restaurants a place they could enjoy after their shifts.

“They’ve been serving and waiting on people all night, and they want to sit down and have a hamburger and get waited on,” he said.

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