Iconic restaurant staples in Northwest Arkansas closed for several months due to COVID-19 and some had no plans opening up again. But now, Theos and East Side Grill are reopening under new ownership.
“It’s just something that I saw and said is there a possibility that we might be able to do this and after making a few phone calls and entering into some negotiations it was really exciting to see that we could do this,” said Todd Martin, the new owner.
Todd Martin owns Southern Food Company in Fayetteville now adding both Theos locations and East Side Grill to the list of restaurants under his belt.
“Really truly it has been something on my mind since day one when we started considering this. I think the first time it ran by my mind I talked to my wife Marty about it and she said yeah you’ve lost your mind.”
Both restaurants were formally owned by Scott Bowman of the Bowman Group. Martin says each restaurant brings something unique to Northwest Arkansas and he's looking forward to hit the ground running. Martins first order of business is to rehire as much staff as he can from those restaurants. “Opportunity to go back out in the community and help people get back to work in a time where it seems like we’ve had nothing but bad news.”
Director of operations Jeff Gabbard is one of many key members Martin brought back on board. Gabbard has been with both restaurant for several years and says it was a difficult time when the restaurants closed their doors.
“It was tough it was very emotional. Having to let I think at the time we were employing around 125 people.” said Gabbard.
However, now 4 months later, Martin and his team are ready and excited to welcome back their customers.
“I know that I’m planning we got at least another year to try and weather here. I also know once we come out on the other side of this I think the opportunity is going to be very big.” said Martin, “But really just bringing happiness back to a community and a staff that have really been in a lot of uncertainty during this time.” said Gabbard.
Martin says right now he plans on reopening East Side Grill on August 1st, Theos in Fayetteville August 15th and Theos in Rogers September 1st.