Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Goat, a new sports bar owned by a local family, is set to open this month off of Legends Parkway where the Mellow Mushroom was formerly located in Prattville. The G.O.A.T, an acronym for the “greatest of all time,” will be doing a soft opening of their grill portion of the restaurant on Nov.15th as they wait for their liquor license to process.
The bar portion of the restaurant is set to be open after a public hearing at a Prattville City Council meeting on Dec. 5th, bar manager Zollie Keebler said. Tentative hours of operation will be 10 a.m.-10 p.m. and 10 a.m. to midnight on the weekends.
Priya Patel, the owner of The Goat, graduated from UAB and stated she and her family are from the Montgomery and Pike Road area. Her business partners, Chelsea Patel, Rocky Patel and her dad Harry Patel, are keeping business in the family. “We have a lot of friends and family in Prattville and wanted to bring a new concept with a homemade foundation,” Patel said.
Patel stated the location was perfect and she and her family were looking to create a bar and grill where everyone always feels welcome.
The Goat will have the most active beer taps in Prattville once their liquor license is granted. “The difference between us and other bars is we have 42 taps as of right now, and tentatively being changed to over 70 taps. We may add more because we want to be ‘the G.O.A.T.’ Everything here is either go big or go home. No matter how you go home you’re going big,” Keebler said.
With over 25 TVs throughout the restaurant, Keebler stated that every TV will be playing something sports related, always. “From football to tennis to soccer, every game that we can possibly get will be played all day long,” Keebler said.
Not only will The Goat be a sports bar, the business is paying tribute to the history of what the former building used to be and serving local ingredients and recipes created by the managers and owners.
“Being in the old Mellow Mushroom building, one of the aspects that I simply love is that we kept the old pieces, so you can come to The Goat and get a large pizza any way you want it. Everything in house is fresh and homemade. Myself and my team came up with every recipe from artichoke dip to our chicken batter to ensure it tastes like nowhere else you’ve ever been,” Keebler said.
The beers on tap will almost all be local to the south with 28 different craft beers from Alabama, seven from Mississippi, six from Georgia and nine from Tennessee. The offering is 65 different beers at the moment between the taps, bottles and kegs that will be on site.
With a team of over 60 employees, The Goat’s focus is on patron safety, sports and making sure every patron has the greatest experience of all time when they walk in. Keebler explained that all bar staff and servers will have a seven-step process to ensure drinks are being served safely, legally and responsibly.
The Goat has also partnered with a service called Spot Hopper to help with reservations and transportation. Through this system, if a patron gets too intoxicated, The Goat can order that patron a ride home to take away any chance of drinking and driving.
In the future the restaurant is also looking to partner with hotels in the area to further ensure patron safety in the restaurant and on the road. Keebler said they’re also hoping to have some form of security after certain hours to keep everyone cool, calm and collected.
Going forward The Goat will offer brunch on the weekends where Patel highlighted their Pic-4 or Pic-6 Mimosa flight and other sports related specials that will be on the menu.
“Our staff is amazing, we’re just like a family,” Patel said. “Even though family is involved, everyone becomes family at the end of the day. We want to bring that to each customer and make sure everyone feels like a legend when they walk in and emphasize the idea of being a goat. We feel like everyone can be a goat, from dining like a goat and walking out like a goat,” Patel said while smiling in her empty restaurant.
Doors will be open for business on Nov. 15th with regular hours of operation even without the presence of alcohol.
