A taste of Louisiana is coming to downtown Chattanooga next month when Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux opens in a Broad Street storefront once occupied by Bluewater Grille before it closed two years ago after 13 years of operation.
The new 7,500-square-foot, two-story restaurant has begun hiring to fill the 200 positions at the new sports bar, which will feature more than 70 television sets, local beers on draft and an air-conditioned outdoor patio.
Walk-On’s was started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2003 by a pair of walk-on basketball players for Louisiana State University – Brandon Landry and Jack Warner – and expanded to Tennessee last year with a restaurant and bar on Kingston Pike in Knoxville. Chattanooga is the second site in Tennessee for the growing restaurant chain.
Although Landry and Warner didn’t get a lot of playing time while at LSU, they did develop a friendship and business that is growing across the Southeast and now includes more than 50 company-owned and franchised units either open or in the planning stages. Landry said the idea for the restaurant took shape when the LSU basketball team was flying back to Baton Rouge from Knoxville after playing the University of Tennessee.
With the growth of the restaurant chain, the pair have attracted outside investors, including NFL All-Pro Quarterback Drew Brees, one of the company’s co-owners.