Sunday, June 28, 2009

KEY WEST

After having been active in the Key West sports scene for almost two decades, John Grimesey and Debra Bertolini, a husband and wife who also coach at Key West High, couldn't help but feel that something was missing in town.

Sure, there were places to get together and watch a game, but, they found, there wasn't a real center for community sports.

"You have the downtown bar scene and then you've got the rest of the island where, for lack of a better term, the Conchs live," said Grimesey, who is an assistant on the Key West High football staff.

With their latest venture, Grimesey and Bertolini are looking to bridge that gap and fill the void.

The couple, who moved to Key West in 1991 and spent much of that time working in bars downtown, decided to get in the business on the ownership side. They opened Grim's Grill, a sports bar and restaurant, earlier this month in the Habana Plaza on the corner of Flagler Avenue and Kennedy Drive, a place they both envision becoming the mecca for local sports.

"I think a lot of people don't realize just how rich of a community we have in Key West and how much is really going on outside of the part that just the outside world sees," said Bertolini, who is also the Conchs' girls cross country coach. "That's the thing about Grim's -- we really hope this is the place that the two parts of town can kind of come and be together and share the common love of sports. We have a lot of sub-goals besides having a successful bar and restaurant, there's more to it than that to us."

With framed photos of various former Key West High athletes, along with framed Conch jerseys, lining the walls, it's clear that local athletics are a priority at the restaurant.

One of the more immediate ways that the bar has made its impact so far has been in team sponsorship. There is already a Grim's Grill team in the city's men's softball league, and Grimesey said he is planning on getting a team in the coed league as well as the junior football league.

"We're into doing anything that can promote adult or junior sports," he said. "It's good for everybody, and it's good for our business. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I think this is a sports-crazy town and I think that this spot was made for it and that it'll work."

In addition to the team sponsorship, the bar has already also played host to a couple of fundraising events for local sports programs. The Key West High football team and the Key West Under-12 travel baseball team both held car washes at the restaurant. The bar also sponsored the Conchs' spring football game last month, which included T-shirt and monetary donations.

Grimesey said he is looking forward to being able to do more, noting that he wants to become like some of the other local businessmen whose contributions help a lot of the local programs thrive.

"We've already started doing some things, but I've realized that the first thing we've got to do is make sure the company is healthy," he said. "If business works, when it does, I can become like a Jack Niles or a Bill Spottswood or people like that who really donate to sports in this town. I want to hopefully achieve status like those guys in this town. What they do for sports is sick. If we can get another person to help out like they do, it'll be big because budget cuts are still coming and everybody is feeling it."

What might prove to be the bar's biggest draw, however, won't come until football season.

Prior to each of the eight home games this fall for the Key West High football team, which plays just a few blocks away at Tommy Roberts Memorial Stadium, the restaurant will host a pregame tailgate. After each game, Grimesey plans on showing a DVD copy of that night's game on a few of the bar's 17 flat-screen HD televisions. Considering that there is a television in each restroom, there really won't be a bad seat in the house.

"That's going to be huge for us," Grimesey said of the fall football events. "We've even talked to (Key West baseball coach) Miguel Menendez about possibly taping baseball games and running those the night after. We want to get in with any sport."

The bar, which will also host a radio show on Monday night's this fall on WKWF, has already turned into a second coaches office for the Key West High football staff.

"We'll be here together every Friday night after home games," Grimesey said, "and we're talking about getting together Monday nights to do a coaches segment on the radio show."

Head coach Jerry Hughes added with a laugh: "We've just got to find some beds to roll in there. We might never get out."

Since the opening, life has been pretty hectic for both Grimesey and Bertolini. They credit friends and business partners Alain Majeau and Marci Quintana with helping them get through the early stages.

"I've been doing an experiment in sleep deprivation," Bertolini said with a laugh. "I expected it in terms of how busy it's been, but I didn't expect it to be as fun as it's been. Even though I'm working so much and have been pretty tired at night, I'm having tons of fun, too, so it's been cool."

To find out Grimesey and Bertolini's ultimate goal for the venture, one need look no further than the bar's tagline: "The Greatest Sports Bar of All Time."

Grimesey said the idea for the bold slogan came from Muhammad Ali's famous boast of being "the greatest of all times."

"I almost put the 'S' at the end, but I thought that would've been too much of a rip-off," Grimesey said. "But the idea is that we just want to be better than every other sports bar. It keeps us focused and keeps our staff focused on just being a little bit better than everybody else. That's always in the back of our minds, so why not just throw it out there? That's what we want to be -- the greatest sports bar anyone's ever walked into."

wjacobson@keysnews.com