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Sports lovers turn their passion into a longtime business
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: June 9, 2011
Running a successful business of any kind is never easy, but for Akron native, Dante D’Andrea and his family, opening Dante’s Gameday Grille was almost a foregone conclusion.
“It’s all sports all the time in this family,” said Dante D’Andrea, the owner after whom the business is named.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Dante, who opened the bar and grill with his father, Chuck, in September 1995.
“I’ve been a big sports fan all my life. We have all types of memorabilia. My dad and I had been talking about opening a sports bar for a while, and when the building became available, we just did it.”
Located at 1019 N. Main St. downtown Akron, the bar and grill features seven televisions, enough to please sports fans of all different tastes.
Dante’s Gameday Grille has a wide variety of menu items, ranging from appetizers like wings, chicken fingers and game day fries to chicken wraps and burgers. The bar offers a host of beers, wines and mixed drinks.
“Our most popular items are the wings and chicken wraps,” said Manager Sandie D’Andrea, who is also Dante’s mother. “We have all types of wings, including breaded and a variety of buffalo flavors. We make most of our sauces. At the bar, the tall draft beers do the best.
“Many of our customers know one another, and even have their own seats at the bar, so to speak.”
“I went to St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, my parents went to North High School, and a lot of times on the weekend we get a lot of people stopping by after the games, so that is kind of nice,” said Dante.
The owners did have a few things going for them right from the start. When they opened, Dante had already been working in sales and his father, Chuck, was a partner in another pub, helping to give them the experience necessary to start their own endeavor.
“We had a friend who was a chef and he helped us start our menu,” said Sandie.
There have been additions and subtractions since then, but she said the basic menu remains intact.
The sports bar has a seating capacity of about 80, and is open every day except Sunday, with longer hours on the days of big sporting events, and even Sunday hours for the Super Bowl.
The owners offer some specials like “$1 taco Tuesdays” and “$1 burger Thursdays” as well as $4 dinner specials on other weekday nights.
There are eight employees, including four family members.
“Our cook, Ron Jones, has been with us from the start,” said Sandie.
The sports bar does have many longtime patrons, but Dante said most of the new business comes from word of mouth. However, he said they do have a Facebook page, which also helps to generate customers.
Although the business was Dante and his father’s idea, they are not heavily involved in running it.
“My wife, mom, brother and dad’s godson do most of the work,” he said. “It’s a tough business, a lot tougher than I thought going in. It requires a lot of hours and late nights, but if you want it to be successful you have to be there.”
The recent downturn also presented challenges as well, but the owners survived, and say things are returning to normal.
“We own the building so that helped, and we are a smaller operation so our overhead is low,” said Sandie. “I think if you are a big business, you get into more trouble if things are slow.
“It’s been a journey; things change, people evolve. You start with one crowd, they grow up and get married, and then you need to adapt for the next generation.”
There has been some discussion about making menu and other changes, but Sandie said the real goal is to “keep the place a friendly, neighborhood sports bar, where people can stop by and run into friends.”