Great American Ranch recently opened its second location at 7514 Lee-Davis Road. (Photos by Charlotte Matherly)
Great American Ranch, the local country-style restaurant and self-described saloon, has expanded beyond its original homestead in Midlothian.
It opened a new location at 7514 Lee-Davis Road in Mechanicsville last month, bringing American food, 24 beers on tap, live music and its signature mechanical bull to a whole new end of the region.
Co-owner Mauro Garrido has worked in nightclub management for years, opening bars all over the country. He started his first country bar in Florida nine years ago and proceeded to open more than half a dozen across the U.S. Someone reached out to him with an idea for a country bar in Richmond about seven years ago and, “the rest is history,” Garrido says.
He and co-owner Steve Myers launched Great American Ranch in 2018 at 13995 Raised Antler Circle in the Deer Run Village shopping center. Soon after, they started looking at spaces to open a second location in Mechanicsville but pressed pause during the pandemic.
When the Calabash seafood restaurant and Club Midway, which previously occupied the Ranch’s new space, shut their doors last year, Garrido said he saw an opportunity and took it. He added that he thinks Mechanicsville is the perfect market for a country-style restaurant.
Co-owner Mauro Garrido (left) and manager Randy Shaw.
“A lot of people come in here and say that this is what they needed out here,” said Randy Shaw, the new location’s general manager. Shaw is a veteran Richmond bartender and has been with Great American Ranch since its early days.
The inside of the 15,000-square-foot building, which Great American Ranch began leasing in November, is almost unrecognizable from its previous tenant, Garrido said.
It underwent major renovations and now includes a full restaurant, dubbed “the ranch,” an arcade and an outdoor patio. In the back half of the building is “the saloon,” complete with a stage for local bands, Shaw said.
The Mechanicsville restaurant is a little bigger than its Midlothian counterpart, but the design, menu and features are otherwise the same.
The bar at the new location.
The restaurant and saloon sees its biggest crowds of about 1,000 customers on Fridays and Saturdays, Shaw said, and most people come around or after 8 p.m.
Garrido said while there are other country bars and other restaurants with music venues, “nobody offers what we do.”
“I always say that we sell good times,” Garrido said. “We are not a five-star restaurant, but we have great food. We are not a craft beer place, but we have 24 tap beers. … What I try to sell these people coming here [is] forgetting all their problems.”
More locations could be in the future, Garrido said, but not in Richmond. With two restaurants in the area already, he’s prepared to expand outside the region to reach his target demographic.
Great American Ranch recently opened its second location at 7514 Lee-Davis Road. (Photos by Charlotte Matherly)
Great American Ranch, the local country-style restaurant and self-described saloon, has expanded beyond its original homestead in Midlothian.
It opened a new location at 7514 Lee-Davis Road in Mechanicsville last month, bringing American food, 24 beers on tap, live music and its signature mechanical bull to a whole new end of the region.
Co-owner Mauro Garrido has worked in nightclub management for years, opening bars all over the country. He started his first country bar in Florida nine years ago and proceeded to open more than half a dozen across the U.S. Someone reached out to him with an idea for a country bar in Richmond about seven years ago and, “the rest is history,” Garrido says.
He and co-owner Steve Myers launched Great American Ranch in 2018 at 13995 Raised Antler Circle in the Deer Run Village shopping center. Soon after, they started looking at spaces to open a second location in Mechanicsville but pressed pause during the pandemic.
When the Calabash seafood restaurant and Club Midway, which previously occupied the Ranch’s new space, shut their doors last year, Garrido said he saw an opportunity and took it. He added that he thinks Mechanicsville is the perfect market for a country-style restaurant.
Co-owner Mauro Garrido (left) and manager Randy Shaw.
“A lot of people come in here and say that this is what they needed out here,” said Randy Shaw, the new location’s general manager. Shaw is a veteran Richmond bartender and has been with Great American Ranch since its early days.
The inside of the 15,000-square-foot building, which Great American Ranch began leasing in November, is almost unrecognizable from its previous tenant, Garrido said.
It underwent major renovations and now includes a full restaurant, dubbed “the ranch,” an arcade and an outdoor patio. In the back half of the building is “the saloon,” complete with a stage for local bands, Shaw said.
The Mechanicsville restaurant is a little bigger than its Midlothian counterpart, but the design, menu and features are otherwise the same.
The bar at the new location.
The restaurant and saloon sees its biggest crowds of about 1,000 customers on Fridays and Saturdays, Shaw said, and most people come around or after 8 p.m.
Garrido said while there are other country bars and other restaurants with music venues, “nobody offers what we do.”
“I always say that we sell good times,” Garrido said. “We are not a five-star restaurant, but we have great food. We are not a craft beer place, but we have 24 tap beers. … What I try to sell these people coming here [is] forgetting all their problems.”
More locations could be in the future, Garrido said, but not in Richmond. With two restaurants in the area already, he’s prepared to expand outside the region to reach his target demographic.
Welcome to the neighborhood. Mechanicsville has needed a place like this for a long time!
lol the chesterfield location is always being visited by the cops for unruly customers. Have fun Mechanicsville