2025 SESSION

ENROLLED

HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 721

Commending Great American Restaurants.

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 18, 2025

WHEREAS, Great American Restaurants, a distinguished hospitality group that includes 18 restaurants and bakeries throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024; and

WHEREAS, Great American Restaurants traces its origins to 1974, when Randy Norton and Jim Farley opened a 16-table pizza place in Fairfax City; the pair were joined by Mike Ranney a year later, and following the opening of Fantastic Fritzbe's Flying Food Factory, now Silverado, in 1976, the Great American Restaurants company was officially established; and

WHEREAS, today, Great American Restaurants includes Artie's, Best Buns, Carlyle, Coastal Flats, Jackson's Mighty Fine Food & Lucky Lounge, Mike's American, Ozzie's Good Eats, Patsy's American, Randy's Prime Seafood & Steaks, Silverado, Stupid Good BBQ, and Sweetwater Tavern; and

WHEREAS, the growth and success of Great American Restaurants are the result of its leaders' entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm for hospitality and its team members' hard work and commitment to delivering quality food and impeccable service; and

WHEREAS, Great American Restaurants supports individuals and families in need by partnering with the Great American Community Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that prepares and distributes meals to people facing food insecurity; and

WHEREAS, since 2002, Great American Restaurants has donated more than $2.5 million through its dessert partners program to support the Arlington Food Assistance Center, Food For Others, the Great American Restaurants Scholarship Fund at George Mason University, Manna Food Center, So Others Might Eat, the Latino Student Fund, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Youth For Tomorrow, and Share Our Strength, including the organization's “No Kid Hungry” campaign; and

WHEREAS, Great American Restaurants' managers and staff make an impact by giving generously of their time to prepare and serve meals through organizations such as the Arlington Food Assistance Center and Food for Others; and

WHEREAS, Great American Restaurants' dedication to excellence and exemplary service has helped to make the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area a wonderful place to live, work, and enjoy a meal; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, That Great American Restaurants hereby be commended for its achievements on the occasion of its 50th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to representatives of Great American Restaurants as an expression of the House of Delegates' admiration for its contributions to the Commonwealth.