Sundae Cafe opening sports bar at old Outback Cafe on Tybee – soon!

Have you heard the good news?

Sundae Café co-owner A.J. Baker  answered a couple of questions  about the new restaurant and sports bar he and two business associates plan to open in the northern portion of Tybee Island.

AJ says –

Not sure about the name.   “We’re still throwing a couple names around.”

When is it opening?   “My guess would be February or March.”

The new Sports Bar will occupy a space on the northeastern corner of the intersection of U.S. 80 and Campbell Avenue that was for many years the site of the Outback Cafe and most recently housed Two Pirates Tavern and Pub.

The wall that separated dining and bar areas in that space has been removed, creating one large room that will have seating for 90 patrons, said A.J., who’s joined in the endeavor by his Sundae Café partner, Kevin Carpenter, and the café’s general manager, Mark Sturmfelz.

Kevin and A.J. were in their mid-20s when they opened the Sundae Café in May 2001 in a one-time yogurt shop on U.S. 80 at 2nd Avenue. They’d worked in the restaurant business since they were kids growing up on Tybee, and they started the café as, in A.J.’s words, “an ice cream place with sandwiches” that served lunch.

Two years later, they expanded into adjacent quarters and opened at night, and their upscale dinner menu has been very popular with locals and tourists. The café is usually jam-packed at lunchtime, when they have lunch specials like pot roast and meatloaf with fresh vegetables.

At the new location, A.J. said, “We don’t want to have the same food — we want it to be different.”

That being the case, one of the five or so entrees there will probably be fried chicken and waffles, and the “fun appetizers” will be “bar food” that’s been tweaked so that it’s unique, said A.J.

For example: Instead of the batter-coated mozzarella cheese sticks you’ll find at most sports bars, they’ll offer pecan-fried brie cheese with homemade strawberry jam.

Burgers and sandwiches will also be on the menu, and the full-service bar will feature somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 craft beers.

The atmosphere will be family-friendly, A.J. said, emphasizing there will be strict adherence to Georgia’s no-smoking law.

“We want it to be a comfortable place to watch a game,” said Mark, who’s worked at the Sundae Café for the past six years.

Asked about the trio’s motivation for opening a second location, A.J. said they felt that “Tybee needs another good place to eat.”

“We talked about this for a couple of years,” he said, “and we always wanted to do a sports-themed bar-restaurant.”

Contributing to that is the fact that all three are sports fans, with Kevin being a follower of the Atlanta Falcons, A.J. supporting teams in Chicago, and Mark backing teams in Philadelphia.

“So that means we’ll have at least three TVs,” quipped A.J., who quickly added that plans actually call for there to be eight to 10 big-screen televisions on the premises.

The new establishment will open at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, with a full menu available until 10 p.m. and a limited, late-night menu from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. On weekends, lunch will also be available, with the opening time at 11 a.m.

Locals say, “We can’t wait!!!”