The Story of Mike Bradshaw
By CJ Walker Downtown Athens, Georgia undergoes dramatic changes every five years, making it unrecognizable to the people who were raised in the city, however Mike Bradshaw, owner of the Grill on College Avenue, tries to renew the community by preserving its landmarks and extending its culture. Though Bradshaw is not a native to Athens, he feels like he has been here forever. He feels as if Athens is constantly changing and becoming more commercial. Bradshaw dislikes this fact and does what he can to help save what is left of Athens. “Part of our draw here [at the Grill] is that we’ve been open for a long time and a lot of people who remember the Grill back in the day, come back into town and look around and don’t recognize anything except for us and maybe two or three other places,” Bradshaw said. Bradshaw, 39, was born and raised in the small town of Tacoma, Georgia along with his four other siblings. As a child, Bradshaw did not have much, but he never let that seem to faze him. “Mike and I grew up in north Georgia, right on the foothills of the mountains in the woods, in a trailer, and pretty poor. It was at least 20 miles to get to the school. It was hard trying to get around back in the day like that,” Jesse Bradshaw, brother of Mike, said. After graduating high school, Bradshaw moved to Athens, Georgia to follow his girlfriend (now wife). He attended the University of Georgia, but shortly dropped out after a year. “I just wasn’t ready for college. I was so ready to be done with school and when I came up here, I really half-assed it and wasn’t interested,” Mike Bradshaw said. Soon after dropping out of college, he found himself in search for a job. At the age of 19, Bradshaw began working at the Grill. When he began at the Grill, he did not take it as seriously as he should have. He felt as if it was just another part-time job and he wasn’t invested in it as mentally as he should. That however did not mean he was a bad worker. He was actually a pretty hard worker. Bradshaw soon got promoted to night shift manager. Eventually, he got burned out and quit. A couple of days later, the then owner asked to him come back to be the dayshift manager. Bradshaw accepted. “As he worked that dayshift manager job, I think he got a little more serious about what he wanted to do with life and where he wanted to live, so it evolved into a friendly takeover,” said Jeff Weinberg, former owner of the Grill. Mike Bradshaw inherited the Grill from Weinberg and started becoming more serious with his life. “That was a big life changer for sure. That was when I committed to doing restaurant work and so far it has turned out great. I’m very glad I did it,” said Bradshaw. At this point in his life, he felt that he wanted to help give back to his community and help maintain the beauty of his city that he now calls home. This is when Bradshaw joined a group called SORBA, which stands for Southern Off-Road Association. This is a group of mountain bikers that dedicates themselves to building bike trails around the city of Athens. “We want lots of people to ride [the trails] so that the city could give us more permission to build more trails in town because Athens is very underrepresented as far as trails go,” said Bradshaw, “We have just about five miles of sanctioned trails in Athens, which is kind of sad. There should be a lot more.” Building trails is not the only way Mike Bradshaw plans to keep Athens, Athens. It is a known fact that this business owner only supports Athens native stores and disapproves all of the chain restaurants moving in to downtown. “He’s very passionate about having a local business and he tries to encourage us as a local organization to always support local businesses,” said Michael Day, SORBA vice president, “If we’re going to have a social event or a volunteer day, we usually try to get pizzas from a local pizzeria as apposed to a place like Papa Johns.” Being an avid local business owner and hardworking trail builder, Mike Bradshaw is very proud of the work he does to perverse the look of Athens. Bradshaw feels like this city has been a big part of him finding himself, so he wants to make sure Athens doesn’t lose itself.
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December 2016
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