Glory Days opens in Barcroft Plaza

Glory Days draws a large crowd on opening day.

The much-anticipated Glory Days Grill, at 6341 Columbia Pike in Barcroft Plaza, finally opened.

Local residents packed the place as soon as the doors opened, at 4 p.m. on Dec. 19. “I’ve been waiting for a neighborhood bar for 20 years,” said Parklawn resident Tom Dickson.

The restaurant is ready for game day with more than 40 TV screens.

Glory Days company officials refer to the place as a “sports restaurant,” as that better reflects its family friendly atmosphere than “sports bar.” And while Glory Days Grills are gathering spots for sports fans, more people come for the food than to watch a game.

Lots of sandwiches on the menu.

The menu features standard American fare, focusing on burgers and wings. There are $5.99 burgers on Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, rib specials on Wednesdays, pizza and nachos specials on Thursdays, fish fry Fridays, and daily happy hour specials.

John and Nao Morgan with children Zuma and Samantha.

The Barcroft Plaza location is the 29th restaurant in the Glory Days chain and the first one inside the beltway, says manager Wali Ghause. New ones are slated to open soon on Duke Street in Alexandria and near BWI Airport in Maryland.

There are 14 Glory Days Grills in Virginia, seven in Florida, six in Maryland, and one each in West Virginia and North Carolina.

Busy times in the kitchen.

The new restaurant is a bit more modern and larger than some of the older ones, but the menu is the same, Ghause says.

At over 7,000 square feet, the Barcroft Plaza location is the second largest in the chain, says Jeff Newman, Glory Days president and co-founder. There’s an area in the back that can be screened off for private parties and other events. There’s no charge to rent that space, as long as guests order food. The TV monitors in that area can be used to screen presentations during meetings.

From the left: President and co-founder Jeff Newman, the company’s regional director, and Barcroft Plaza Glory Days manager Wali Ghause.

Throughout the restaurant, the walls are covered with more than 40 TVs. There’s a speaker on each table that allows diners to choose which game they want to listen to.

The restaurant already has a fundraising deal with the Parklawn Elementary School PTA, Dickson says. The school will get 10 percent of the proceeds March 1-May 31, if diners mail their original receipts to Parklawn PTA, 4116 Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22312.

Another Parklawn fundraiser happens on Jan. 30. Glory Days will contribute 10 percent of food and beverage proceeds purchased 4-10 p.m. to the PTA.

From the left: Brady Naylor, a student at Flint Hill School, and Glasgow Middle School students David Abarca and Ben Bruzonic.

When Newman founded the first Glory Days, in Burke, in 1996, with partners Richard Danken and Bob Garner, he said it was created with the idea that “you live your glory days through your family, relatives, and friends.”

The Barcroft Plaza Glory Days almost didn’t happen. There were discussions about opening in Barcroft Plaza a few years ago, in a spot formerly occupied by a Korean restaurant, but that plan fell through as the space needed extensive work, Newman says.

Then the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles announced plans to open a branch in that location – which faced widespread opposition from local residents. The DMV relocation was scuttled, but the agency had already done extensive work to the interior of the space. In October 2016, Glory Days revived its plans to open in Barcroft Plaza.