Iconic downtown Athens diner The Grill has reopened. Find out what the owner had to say.

It's easy to understand why Mike Bradshaw didn't tie a bunch of balloons to the front entrance of The Grill when it re-opened last night. As the owner of the iconic downtown Athens diner, Bradshaw wanted as little fanfare as possible as he and staff prepared to take in their first customers since summer 2021.

"We turned the lights on and unlocked the doors at 5 p.m., but nothing was going on," Bradshaw told the Banner-Herald. "The staff was like, 'When's it going to happen?' And I was like, 'Just watch.' As soon as it gets dark, everyone's gonna see the lights and it'll be like a beacon."

As the second-oldest restaurant in Athens after The Mayflower, The Grill, with its bright neon sign advertising 24-hour eats, was a staple at 171 College Ave. for 40 years before it closed in July 2021 for air-conditioning repairs. Bradshaw, who has owned the diner for more than two decades, described a more complicated situation.

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Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the problems faced by all restaurants, Bradshaw said he had been "actively battling" Athens-Clarke County commissioners about closing the street in front of The Grill and other neighboring businesses for the College Square Plaza project, which installed picnic tables and greenery where parking spaces had once been.

Despite near-constant knocks on the front door of The Grill over the past two months getting ready for the reopen, Bradshaw appreciates what his diner means to the Athens community, and hopes that its time-honored reputation will translate to good business in light of his purposeful lack of advertising. The Grill's new schedule is 5-10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

"I'm realizing that it's more than just a hamburger to people," said Bradshaw. "With The Grit and Heirloom Café gone, I get that The Grill represents an Athens that some fear is disappearing. At the same time, we're not prepared to handle a huge crowd right now, so my real fear is that we're going to just sabotage ourselves and get destroyed this weekend."

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Iconic downtown Athens restaurant The Grill reopens with shorter hours