Cheyenne Grille – the Man behind the Scenes…

I recently did an interview with one of the owners for our sponsors, Cheyenne Grille. Michael Gross is one of three owners that acquire the restaurant last year. He is also a huge volleyball fan and player. I met Mike in the early 2000’s when he and his wife, my former boss, Carol played in one of my AirVorne events. Through the years, he became a huge fan of the sport and played as much as he could through AirVorne Volleyball. When I heard that he was purchasing Cheyenne Grille last year, I was excited for him and his partners, David Smedlund and Fred Barber.

The biggest change that Michael and the crew invested in with Cheyenne Grille was the warm Southern hospitality you get once you enter the doors. Cheyenne Grille is also keeping up with the latest technology of marketing and communication with their customers as well as the best quality of sports entertainment for the fans.

AV: Tell us more about what Cheyenne Grille is doing to provide the best service for the average sport fans?

Michael: We want to create an experience for the fan. That may mean something as small as surprising our guests with a menu that offers more than just the typical ‘bar’ food to providing great TV’s or doing something really special like playing a team’s fight song when over the sound system with their team scores. We’ve been working really hard on getting approval to get a DVR to record certain sports events to play at a later time and I’m glad to announce today that we have approval.

AV: How did you get into the sport of volleyball? Did your wife, Carol have some influence in getting you into the sport?

Michael: More than a little. One day I’ll have to tell you about my first experience at the net! It was a joke. Having been a runner and a swimmer my whole life after being married for 4 years she needed a sub for a game. I said; “sure, I’ll sub, who hasn’t played volleyball before. It’s easy…” BIG mistake. I got creamed, it was hilarious, but I was hooked! Been playing and seeking out great players to help me improve ever since. I’m still goof on the court but I love the game!

AV: What do you prefer: Sand, Grass and/or Indoor?

Michael: I am a true enthusiast. I love them all. I must admit though, Sand 2’s kills me! I’m not good enough to play 2’s but I do enjoy 4’s on sand. My favorite grass tournaments are the King & Queen tournaments that AirVorne Volleyball runs. It’s such an original concept and I’m so outgoing I love meeting and playing with new people. Indoor I’m one of those weird guys that likes to hit weak side, my second choice is middle … and … for any of you that may have the displeasure of setting me, please DON’T push me out, love it a little inside, I promise I can turn hard on it and shoot it down the line.

AV: Cheyenne Grille supports various college and professional fan clubs throughout the metro area of Atlanta…What is Cheyenne Grille doing to support the volleyball community? Are we any different than other community/organizations that you serve?

Michael: Well that’s a great question. I’ve wanted to get involved in the volleyball community here in Atlanta for a long time. This year I’ve been pretty sick but I’m working my way back to health and my partners and I will be finding ways to support the community. I don’t know if you know, but my partner David is an awesome volleyball player and played on the Georgia Tech club squad back in the day. We love the sport but we’re getting old so we want to help by doing more than just playing. We want to get involved with DIG for Kids and of course working with AirVorne Volleyball and your connections with AVPNext and Barefoot Wines along with attracting sponsors for your tournaments, there’s a lot we can do and we’re excited to support a sport that seems to be underserved here in the ATL.

AV: Do you have any plans to televise the 2010 AVP events here at Cheyenne Grille?

Michael: As I mentioned earlier, we just got approval to add a DVR to our system. The catalyst for that was our partnership with AirVorne Volleyball and Barefoot Wines. We wanted to be able to not only show the 2010 AVP season but we wanted to be able to show it when the true volleyball enthusiast could watch. And I want to give you a big shout out Dennis for making the suggestion. I know a lot of players are at your tournaments on the weekends and their playing volleyball while the AVP is being televised. Our goal is to DVR those matches and then play them on our huge 11’ HD Projections TV after the AirVorne tournaments! We are very excited about this development. It took a while for us to get it but now we have it and we can’t wait to get started!

For more information on when AVP is scheduled to televised, please visit www.avp.com.

AV: One of the biggest sponsor / supporter for AirVorne Volleyball has been the AVP. One of their big sponsors is Barefoot Wine. I understand that Barefoot Wine is now the official house wine for Cheyenne Grille. How has Barefoot Wine helped Cheyenne Grille?

Michael: Wow! You said it brother. Being connected to Barefoot has been great. We made Barefoot our official house wine and they really came through for us because of our connection with AirVorne and your link to AVP. Now we do specials with Barefoot like $10 bottles of wine on Wednesday nights and buckets of mini wine bottles called a ‘bucket of toes’ … kind of play on the whole Barefoot theme. It’s been great partnering with Barefoot, they even printed new menu pages for us to update our menus. We’re looking forward to bigger and better things from this partnership.

AV: Tell us more about your partners, David Smedlund and Fred Barber. What are their roles in the restaurant?

Michael: David, or as we call him ‘Smeddy’, is our GM (general manager). Smeddy runs the joint and with his background in fine dining he brings a real service orientation to the place. Fred is a numbers guy. He works the back of the house and handles a lot of the accounting. Our partnership really works great because we all have our ‘lanes’ of expertise. It works out really well.

AV: What other events do you have here on a weekly basis?

Michael: Man our calendar is full. I think we have a special almost every night. Monday’s are $5 burger nights and we’ve added 3 for 5 (three sliders for $5) or a pitcher of beer, 2 burgers and fries for just $15. We do $1 ribs and BBQ sliders on Tuesday, Wednesday is Ladies Night with ½ off small plates and salads and don’t forget the $10 bottles of Barefoot wine! Thursday is All You Can Eat Wings and there are drink specials all weekend long. We also do Trivia every Tuesday and Thursday and we do Texas Hold’em Poker on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. So we stay pretty busy.

AV: What is the best thing on your menu? What is your best popular beer on tap? In the bottle? (of course, this is your opinion).

Michael: The best thing on the menu, wow, that’s a tough one. We are known for our ½ lb. all beef Angus burgers and chicken wings. We’ve come out with a new sauce that is really popular, it’s spicier than most and has a little smoky flavor. But the best thing on the menu may be our Brisket, we sell out almost every day. We also do a great Brisket Taco and Pulled Brisket BBBQ Beef sandwich.

Our best beer on Tap is Stella, but that’s just my personal favorite. We sell a lot of Yeungling, Sweetwater and Sam Adams. Our best in the bottle, again in my opinion, is actually in a can! I love PBR and we stock it 16 oz tall boy cans. There is nothing like a cold Pabst after a hot day playing volleyball.

AV: Tell us more about some of your other ventures outside of Cheyenne Grille.

Michael: Well, I’m quite active. I own a small commercial loan brokerage where I assist people with everything from obtaining SBA loans to start or grow small businesses to assisting developers with financing for large development projects. Right now I’m working on helping a real estate investor get a loan to purchase a small apartment community. I’m also involved in a venture that will bring a new real estate franchise to the Southeast region and I’ve got some other irons in the fire. I provide education for real estate investors and advise small businesses on marketing their firms and creating brand identity and awareness. I love business and I may be a little ADD so having a lot of different things going at once fits me perfectly.

I would like to thank Michael Gross for his time to sit with us and tell us more about Cheyenne Grille. If you want the best of the best, be sure to come by to Cheyenne Grille and have a few cold frosty beverages and some amazing food.

See you guys on the court…

Dennis Jocson
AirVorne Volleyball, LLC.