Drake’s Opens Danville Business – The Advocate-Messenger

Fiona Morgan

fiona@amnews.com

A new Drake’s restaurant has officially opened on the Danville Bypass near Walmart.

Drake officials, with the help of the Boyle County Chamber of Commerce, held a ribbon cutting on Monday, their first day of business. Nearly 100 people attended the event, including city and county leaders, Drake executives and many Drake employees.

Danville is the 23rd Drake’s location, joining other locations in Lexington and Nicholasville, as well as other surrounding states. The Danville location is the result of a partnership between Bluegrass Hospitality Group, which owns six restaurant chains including Drake’s, and Greer Companies.

Mark Thornburgh, chief operating officer of Bluegrass Hospitality Group, said this is their first joint venture for Drake’s and they are excited to do it with the Greer family.

“Greer Companies is a family-owned hospitality and commercial real estate development company headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. Greer has developed, owned and operated more than 60 independent and national chain full-service restaurants, as well as several fine casual dining restaurants. It is also a franchisee and operator of several hotel chains, including Marriott, Hilton and InterContinental,” according to the Greer Companies website.

Lee Greer, president of the Greer Company, explained that they have worked on various successful businesses in Danville, including Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. He said they liked the city and thought it would be a good place for Drake.

“Danville was special to us, we franchise Cheddar’s and it went very well; we secured the land and began talking with Bluegrass Hospitality Group about joining forces to create a joint venture of Drake’s, and we always thought this would be the perfect place to do it,” Greer said. “I’m more excited about this than anything else I’ve done in the restaurant business.”

Greer said he thinks it will go well and that people are ready for Drake in Danville.

“We’ve had a lot of support from the community and they’ve let us know they’re ready for Drake,” Greer said.

Boyle County Judge-Executive Trill Bottom welcomed Drake’s team to Danville, saying they were excited to have them.

“Thank you for your vision in coming to Danville, and we look forward to having you here for a long, long time,” Bottom said.

Drake is located in a brand new building that began construction about six months ago. Greer said it’s nice to have a new building because Drake has a specific setting that can’t always be recreated in the old building.

Thornburgh said they have made tremendous progress in hiring. Last week they conducted training for about 200 new employees. They started hiring in August and are now fully employed. Thornburgh said they still have 400 applications in their files.

“What’s really cool is that we have a lot of servers that have been running for 15 or 20 years, and they haven’t run anywhere other than where they are,” Thornburg said. “This is their first opportunity to experience something fresh and new, and they are all excited about it.”

Greer said they have a great team and employees are excited to get started.

“The orientation itself was like a pep rally, with the first day and everyone in the building,” Greer said. “The energy and excitement among the staff is through the roof.”

The Danville restaurant’s managing partner is Jared Kling, who began working at BHG restaurants in 2015. He was a manager at Drake’s Nicholasville and managing partner at Drake’s Hurstbourne.

Kling presented a check for $3,000 to the Head Start program at BGCAP from Drake’s Danville.

Greer said what sets Drake’s apart is its unique menu and fun atmosphere.

“Where else can you get hamburgers, beer, salads, sundries and sushi?” – Greer said. “I think that’s what makes Drake special and what everyone here cares about.”

Drake’s is located at 2596 South Danville Bypass. Their opening hours are from 11:00 to midnight from Sunday to Thursday and from 11:00 to 1:00 on Friday and Saturday. The kitchen closes one hour before closing.