After months of delays, Varsity Grille, College Park’s newest venue on Route 1, will open within the next month, one owner said.

Jim McGinnis, one of the Varsity Grille’s owners and an alumnus, originally planned to open the restaurant in November as a replacement to the Latin-themed Los Cabos. But problems with the lease, inspections and renovations have delayed Varsity Grille – named after a popular College Park restaurant opened in 1931 and where Santa Fe Cafe now stands – from opening.

“The landlord is out-of-state in Florida; he wanted to fix some things from the previous owner,” McGinnis said, also citing some plumbing and air conditioning problems with the building that led to a delay in solidifying the lease.

The lease was signed in mid-October; Varsity Grille had to undergo numerous city and county inspections including those for health, fire code and architecture, McGinnis added. The November and December holiday seasons, however, delayed the inspections, and the overall process ended up taking about four months.

Now, McGinnis and his associates, such as general manager Craig Lorch, are hard at work to prepare the bar for customers.

“For many months, there wasn’t any activity [at the Varsity Grille], and all of a sudden there was a lot of action and a lot of cars in the parking lot,” said District 2 Council member Bob Catlin.

After making upgrades to the building’s air conditioning, plumbing, heating and kitchen facilities, the owners are completely redecorating the venue to fit a comfortable, fine-dining motif infused with some state- and Prince George’s County-themed memorabilia.

“We want a nice ambiance to serve what hasn’t been here before,” McGinnis said. “It’s going to be a step up from what you normally see in the College Park market.”

In fact, Varsity Grille isn’t even planning to target students. With 22 televisions, a variety of alcoholic beverages and entrees ranging in price from $18 to $25, McGinnis and Lorch expect to see families, faculty and alumni eating at their restaurant, they said.

“I live here, I know the market when I go out to eat with my family,” McGinnis said. “What I want just isn’t here.”

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