The Collegiate Grill has cycled through three different owners the past 75 years; however, that number will climb to four tomorrow as the current owners of Sweet Magnolias Café located on the Historic Gainesville Square assume ownership.
“I started working there when I was 12 years old under the Browns,” Jeff Worley, the current owner of the Collegiate Grill said. “I was so little that I remember Mr. Brown had a wooden Coke crate that I’d stand on to fix drinks.”
Jeff and Donna Worley have owned the Collegiate Grill at 220 Main St. for 15 years.
The Browns retired in 1985 after they had run the business for 38 years. A second set of owners purchased the business next and ran the Collegiate for 10 years while Worley worked as the general manager, he said.
“After 10 years, I felt the call of God on my life to preach and I left Gainesville and moved to Virginia.”
Worley attended a university while in Virginia and earned a degree in theology. Shortly after, his father passed away unexpectedly and he and his wife headed back to Gainesville, he said.
“I saw the Collegiate and every time I drove by it grieved me seeing it shut down with no lights on, dark and empty,” Worley said. “This was in 2008 and the great recession was just starting, so the whole block was empty.”
Worley met with the property owner of the building and asked for a chance to revitalize the Collegiate. He shared his story with the owner about how he stood on those Coke crates years ago and served the community. Worley’s story helped secure him and his wife’s 15-year run at one of the square’s oldest establishments, he said.
“I just told him with great confidence that if Donna and I couldn’t do it, I said ‘Give me a chance. Let me acquire the business and you keep the building, and I will lease it from you,’” Worley said. “If I can’t rebuild the Collegiate back to its former glory, if I can’t do that and if I fail, then you need to gut it, but I’m going to tell you that I’ve got what it takes,” he said.
Jeff and Donna Worley became owners of the Collegiate Grill in November 2008 and ran the company on three core values: quality, consistency and personality, Worley said.
“Those three values have guided us for 15 years and I drill those into every staff member we have ever hired,” he said. “I started with a staff of nine that first day we opened our doors not knowing what to expect, but what I told them was that we’re going to wake up a sleeping giant in the heart of Gainesville and here is how we are going to do it.”
The 1960s-themed grill has operated using quality, fresh ingredients to deliver a consistent meal for years. People who have dined at the grill know what to expect when they come in and staff are promised to meet or exceed those expectations, Worley said.
Throughout the Worleys’ ownership, the Collegiate went through several challenges including the 18-month-long parking deck construction that limited the restaurant's visibility and access, COVID-19, construction of the Renaissance building and staffing issues that forced the restaurant to close its doors in April to undergo a ‘restructuring’ period, Worley said.
“The irony of it is we had to close because there was so much business, it was like a tsunami. And the labor shortage, I’ve never seen anything like it. We just could not find help…and it was physically killing us,” he said.
When the Collegiate shut its doors to restructure, word got out the Worleys were open to selling the business and that’s when the restaurant was approached by Paresh and Dharma Patel, the owners of the neighboring restaurant Sweet Magnolias.
“We had a few customers come in and told us that [the Worleys] were in this process and wanted to sell [the Collegiate],” Paresh Patel said. “So, I got in touch with Jeff and he was willing to make a deal with us.”
The deal between the Worleys and the Patels was that the Collegiate must remain the same after the changed ownership. According to Worley, there wouldn’t have been a deal had the Patels wanted to change the concept of the restaurant.
“The Collegiate has been here for 75 years now and it’s a part of the community and is a well-established business,” Patel said. “Jeff suggested we don’t make any changes and we thought the same."
The Patels will continue to serve food off the Collegiate’s existing menu and will split their time between Sweet Magnolias and the Collegiate. Patel’s wife will work to manage the grill while he will manage Sweet Magnolias, he said.
“My wife is a very strong lady and I know she’ll be able to run [the Collegiate] just like Jeff and Donna have been running it for 15 years under the same standard,” Patel said.
The Collegiate will re-open May 2 under its new ownership. Jeff and Donna Worley will help the Patels make their transition for two weeks before they say goodbye to the Collegiate’s operations for good.
“I’ll miss my little routine that I had,” Worley said. “But by far are the people that I will miss the most. The regulars and folks have really become like family to us.”
