Grandy's Country Cookin' (shortened to Grandy's) is a homestyle cooking and comfort food restaurant chain based in Nashville, Tennessee.
History
Walter E. Johnson and Rex E. Sanders had met working together as teenagers at a restaurant in Oak Cliff, Dallas. In the early 1960s, they opened a fried chicken stand on Grand Avenue, which expanded. In 1969, Host International purchased the 14 outlets to use for their expansion of Jim Dandy Fried Chicken. After launching and selling a successful chain of restaurants, the two young men created Grandy's, hoping to combine the efficiency of fast food with the ambiance of a full-service restaurant. Johnson and Sanders waited until a non-compete clause before renaming the chain to Grandy's in 1977.[1]
Under the ownership of Saga Foods, Inc. a multi-concept restaurant firm who acquired Grandy's in 1983,[2] Grandy's experienced its greatest growth surge, primarily in the 1980s, having at its zenith almost 200 stores. A buyout of Saga by Marriott Corporation led to a sell off of the Grandy's chain, along with other concepts owned by Saga, to