Jonathan’s Grille is staying in growth mode, on the heels of its tenth location opening in Gallatin this fall.
Local brothers Curt and Mason Revelette have plans for the six new locations of the Nashville-favorite upscale sports bar across Tennessee and its neighboring states.
“What I’m most excited about is the ability to continue to promote from within and thank our long-term team members that have put in those long nights that the bar and restaurant industry demand and [for them] to be able to have a true career and be able to move up within our company,” Mason Revelette told the Business Journal. “We’re just really excited that we are going to be able to grow at a nice consistent pace without losing our culture and our family environment.”
The six new locations will be:
- Lebanon, Barton Village Development, South Hartman Road
- Chattanooga, 212 Market St.
- Jackson, Exit 85 area
- Clarksville, Marcelina Development
- Smyrna, Same Ridley Parkway
- Huntsville, Alabama
The first three listed will break ground in 2024 and the Revelette’s hope that two of them will also open next year. The last three will start to break ground in 2025.
These opportunities are similar to the communities Jonathan’s Grille already operates in.
“They really match the same model of being upscale suburban communities with young families and hotels and day business, and so for us, it just checked a lot of the same boxes that we are looking for,” Curt Reveletter said in an interview. “We just felt like we really understand these communities.”
Other areas on the Revelette’s radar for expansion are Knoxville, Birmingham and Bowling Green.
The Knoxville/East Tennessee area has the ability to support two, if not three, locations, according to the restaurateurs, and the Bowling Green area is attractive because western Kentucky University gives in-state tuition to Middle Tennessee students so the brand is familiar in the market.
Each new location will create about 70 jobs.
“Now that we’re starting to scale a little bit, we are getting some good economies of scale with our vendors and being able to pay our people even a little bit better as our economies of scale increase and some of our costs start to really work in our favor,” Mason Revelette said.
When the brothers tool over Jonathan’s Grille, founded by their parents in 1999, in 2010, there were only two locations: Cool Springs and Bellevue. It has since expanded to Spring Hill; Hendersonville; Germantown; Mt. Juliet; Madison, Alabama; Murfreesboro; Chattanooga and Gallatin.
“You can get a cold beer anywhere, but it’s the people and the atmosphere that make them want to come back. We really try to have higher food quality, a cleaner restaurant, and a really engaged staff that cares about guests,” Mason Revelette said. “A lot of the people that work for us grew up in that area and they’re proud to now be in the newest, coolest place where they grew up. It’s really creating an environment that makes people want to come back day after day.”
Aside from Jonathan’s Grille, the Revelette’s portfolio also includes The Rutledge, located in Franklin and in downtown Music City adjacent to the Four Seasons Hotel Nashville. The brothers have also broken into the beverage space, launching Revelette Wines and Revelette Bourbon.
