‘What’ll ya have?’ no longer rings out in Athens, but The Varsity still finds hungry crowds

ATHENS — Michael Thurmond remembers the first time it hit him.

“What’ll ya have … What’ll ya have?” they shouted.

It came sharp and fast, the quirky menu lingo fueling anticipation. He didn’t know what everything meant, but smells guided the way. Chili steaming in pans, onion rings frying, hamburgers hissing on the flat grill.

It was loud. It was busy. It was The Varsity.

Thurmond had to wait until his teenage years for this. He was Black, and this was the 1960s in the South.

Ordering at the iconic Georgian eatery near the University of Georgia campus meant more than filling an empty stomach.

“It wasn’t just to get a hot dog,” he said. “You were breaking a barrier. You felt like you had a key to something, like we were going somewhere special.”

For almost a century, The Varsity meant something to most people in the Classic City, no matter their background.

It was Saturday in the fall, red and black and full of optimism. It was prom night. It was skipped classes and fuzzy hangovers, soaked up with fries and Coke. It was a civil rights touchstone.

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Then it was gone.

The 8,000-square-foot white building with red trim at Milledge and Broad came down last year, after the Gordy family shuttered it in 2021 and announced plans to expand into the surrounding suburbs.

Where the sprawling eatery long stood, luxury student housing is now going up.

“Athens without a Varsity is almost beyond contemplation,” said Thurmond, a state politician, attorney and author. “It’s hard to process that it’s not there, but nothing ever stays the same.”

The craving didn’t disappear.

In April, The Varsity opened in a former Burger King near Watkinsville, a small town growing fast in neighboring Oconee County.

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Minutes after the 11 a.m. open on a Saturday, cars stacked up at the drive-thru for about a 10-minute wait to get their fix. Demand was so high the first week, sheriff’s officers took off-duty shifts to help traffic flow.

Another spot opened in 2023 in Bethlehem, in nearby Barrow County. Same story: steady traffic, hungry folks.

The Varsity now has eight locations, including in metro Atlanta, Dawsonville and Rome. The family-owned business “will continue to evaluate other opportunities in the state,” said John Browne, chief operating officer of The Varsity, Inc.

Credit: C.J. Bartunek / cjbartunek@gmail.com

John Salazar, a UGA professor and coordinator of the Hospitality and Food Industry Management program, says the approach mirrors a trend in the restaurant industry: less space, fewer costs, more speed.

“Having a smaller footprint and providing access to that suburban consumer allows The Varsity to maintain its presence,” he said, “and generate profit without carrying normal overhead expenses.”

Real estate in Athens is getting more expensive. Developers are hungry to build more housing, which is in short supply. You would need to sell a mountain of hot dogs to make the math work in such a big space.

Browne said sales were “exceptional” and that the Gordy family had no desire to pull up stakes, but that the decision was taken after a zoning back-and-forth with Athens-Clarke County turned ugly.

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Founded by Frank Gordy in Atlanta in 1928, The Varsity opened its first Athens location four years later, across from UGA’s Arch. In 1963, it opened a second location down West Broad Street to a larger building where it stayed for nearly six decades — close to Clarke Central High, fraternity and sorority houses and UGA dorms.

Carl Parks recalls late-night runs to The Varsity when he was a UGA student through the late 1960s. During a career that carried him to Chicago and Washington, D.C., Parks frequently returned, often for football games.

His trips typically included The Varsity. He remembers his sons wearing the paper hats. Later, he helped his six grandkids into booster chairs. Same dining room, same red trays.

“The old Varsity was an anchor and an institution,” said Parks, who retired back in the college town. “A lot of us wish it was still there because it would be going into a fourth generation for many.”

Mike Mobley remained a loyal customer until the end. He went with his dad to the first location until it closed in the late 1970s and took his date to the second location for a frosted orange before prom.

Nearly every Friday from the mid-1990s through 2021, he went for the same meal: a double hamburger ketchup only, two naked hot dogs, fries and a Coke.

“I had to go where the best Coke in the world is,” said the longtime UGA athletics staffer. “That’s at The Varsity.”

Credit: C.J. Bartunek / cjbartunek@gmail.com

Around a decade ago, the Gordy family purchased tracts of land around the restaurant and requested a rezoning for the six-plus acres. The local government restricted what could be developed by limiting building heights, parking and the number of bathrooms.

County Commissioner Melissa Link said she was motivated to protect nearby historic homes after neighbors voiced concerns.

Browne said the Gordy family sold its land in Athens-Clarke “after some local officials sought to mislead the public on our intentions and disparage our reputation with our neighbors.”

He didn’t share what The Varsity had planned to do with the extra land. He said the company was approached by developers with ideas that could have allowed the restaurant to stay.

The Varsity building and tract of land was sold to a developer for more than $15 million in 2021, according to county property records.

In late April, excavators and soil compactors traced around a crane towering over the beginnings of what will be 179 housing units wrapped around an expansive pool, Putt-Putt course and grocery store, according to Northwood Ravin, a company with real estate developments across the Southeast.

Credit: C.J. Bartunek / cjbartunek@gmail.com

Hunger for student housing also factored into the Gordy family agreeing recently to sell roughly 2 acres of surface parking lots at its flagship downtown Atlanta restaurant to a developer to build a tower with 560 student housing units. That restaurant was not part of the sale, though, and will remain open along with its adjacent parking deck.

Thurmond calls development in his hometown Athens “impressive.” He believes in Athens’ future.

But recently, he looked back.

He studied a photograph of three Black women holding signs, demonstrating in Athens before desegregation.

There were marches from Athens churches to The Varsity in 1963 and ’64. The Ku Klux Klan often showed up. People were arrested.

Except for a row of century-old magnolia trees, the place that helped define this college town has changed entirely. But Thurmond hasn’t forgotten the feeling.

“It was a legendary establishment,” he said. “When we were finally able to go, it was special.”