Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux Oxford celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony at it’s new location with Walk-On franchisees Matt Gallagher and Jeff St. Romain, Mayor Robyn Tannehill, the Oxford-Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and guests in attendance.

The restaurant will be located at the end of the shopping center behind Burger King off University Avenue and across the street from the Old Armory Pavilion.

Chamber Board Chairman Quentin Brewer prefaced the ribbon cutting event with a greeting to everyone and gave words of appreciation to Oxford residents and city visitors who decided to join. A couple of guests came as far as Arkansas to celebrate.

Lanyards with coupons for one order of a starter dish or Walk-On’s famous Krispy Kreme donut bread pudding and $10 gift cards were handed out to everyone at the opening and guests could sign up to win free food from Walk-On’s for a year.

Brewer said he was fortunate to visit Walk-On’s the Saturday before and the food, atmosphere and service were great.

“So far 100% of my experience at Walk-On’s has been fantastic and I count on that to continue,” he said. 

According to Brewer without investments into local communities, it would be difficult to grow jobs  and sales tax revenue. The community flourishes when the local businesses flourish and the Chamber of Commerce will do everything in its power to help that happen.

Oxford’s Walk-On will bring about 150 to 200 new jobs to the city and, if as successful as other Walk-On’s locations, will average around $5 million a year.

“One thing every single person here has in common is that we would like to see this succeed,” said Brewer. “We would like this investment you’ve made in our community to come back.”

Finding the right location was critical but they found a great location here in Oxford and The Blackburn Group LLC did a great job in development, said St. Romain.

“It’s a great, business-friendly community and we are honored to be here,” he said. “We’re absolutely excited. Describing Oxford, it’s a city with a lot of culture, a great food town, a great sports’ town and it fits our business model. At Walk-On’s we say we’re more than a restaurant and hopefully we can prove that to the community every day.”

In Oxford Walk-On’s first official act of service, they partnered with Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee to donate money to a fund that will benefit children of North Mississippi. Gallagher and St. Romain presented a $5,000 check to representatives of Le Bonheur and announced that from Thursday to Saturday, all liquor proceeds will be donated back to the hospital.

“Small businesses are the backbone of this community and over the last two years we’ve seen how important our business community is, not only in performing their business, but being partners in this community,” said Tannehill.

Tannehill said Romaine and Gallagher have been great partners to Oxford and thanked them for sponsoring the Holly Jolly Holidays event.

“Thank you for your investment in our community,” she continued. “You planted your business in a whole lot of different places and we are honored that you chose to do it here.”