If you are looking for good food in a family friendly atmosphere where you can also watch the game, or drop in after a late night local ballgame, look no further than Shooters Sports Grill-Hamilton.
Shooters opened to the community on June 7, 2024. Owned by Hamiltonians, Todd and Alison Helton, Shooters is about family and community. It is located in the old Danbarry Theater on Northwest Washington Boulevard. The enormous building offers 15,000 square feet of space, over 100 seats in the bar area with 33 of those at the counter, and 400 dining seats altogether. They also employ about 100 people, bringing new job opportunities to the community.
“I think the key part, or the heart of the story, is we’re a local Hamilton family,” Todd said. “We’re Hamilton people.”
As the first franchised location of Shooters, the Heltons wanted to bring their own take to the restaurant. The vast space and seating of the building is unique to this location. Another unique feature is the 40 TV screens, the most impressive being the massive 10 by 20 foot screen the family has happily dubbed the Hamilton Jumbotron. This behemoth screen sits above the bar as the focal point as you enter the building. “I always try to take everything up a notch,” Todd said. “So when we started talking about a sports bar, I wanted to, ideally, take the sports bar experience to the next level.”
When considering the environment they wanted to create, the Heltons also prioritized family friendliness. The restaurant is light and airy with a lot of natural light pouring in, and classy, collector sports memorabilia decorates the walls. Music is intentionally kept family friendly and quieter during the day in order to define the space differently than the standard noisy, dank bar atmosphere. “I think one of the highlights about Shooters Sports Grill is the fact that we have lighter, friendlier colors,” Todd said. “We focus on being family friendly and not looking like a bar or a man cave.”
With 30 beers on tap and over 55 menu items, there is something to satisfy everyone. The food is fresh and the chicken is never frozen — even for the wings. Prices are reasonable and portions are large, with some reviewers even mentioning it feels like pre-pandemic pricing. Isabelle Helton is Todd and Alison’s daughter, and a waitress at Shooters.
“That’s one of the biggest things I hear…when I bring food out to someone who’s never been here before, they’re like, ‘this is so much food!’” she said. “You have meals for days.”
Another thing that differentiates Shooters from a lot of other Hamilton restaurants are the hours of operation. Sunday through Thursday, they are open until 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday they are open until midnight. It was important to them to make sure they created an option for families to dine when their children’s games let out late and most restaurants have already shut down for the night. With their huge seating area, large crowds can typically be accommodated very comfortably, even on short notice. “I think the size is probably a huge advantage, you know, being in Hamilton,” Alison said. “Especially because Hamilton has … Hamilton, Ross, Badin, and so many different teams and everything. I think the size helps because we have places for all those people to come together.”
In their short time in business, Shooters has already become a hub for local sporting events — something they hope to continue to be in the future. On their first day open, Badin played in a tournament game. “We actually just opened an hour early, and we just slid out and cut the ribbon, and then came back into work,” Alison said. “Because they were already in here watching their game.”
Since that opening day, Shooters has continued to play host to some of the largest local sports events of the summer. When West Side Little League was in the tournament, they were able to live stream the game for community members to watch. Families and friends packed in to cheer on the team. “We are a local sports bar,” Todd said. “We want to cater to local sports. So somebody doesn’t feel like going to the game, but wants to catch the Badin game — we’re going to put it up there unless there’s something big national going on that may trump it.”
Feedback from the community has been positive so far. Todd said the city also has been supportive through this process. The family fully believes in the city and the people of Hamilton. “We chose to invest our own personal money, and what we believe is a lot of good things going on in the city of Hamilton,” he said.
Seeing the community coming in and showing support, reconnecting with old friends — the Helton family agrees that Shooters feels like a reunion. “I think reunion is a great word for it,” Isabelle said. “It’s just felt like a reunion of everyone I’ve ever met.”
The Helton family has brought a unique dining experience to the west side of Hamilton and quickly established themselves as a local sports viewing venue. Their creativity and passion for the restaurant and community are unwavering. ”We’re so proud of everything we’ve built,” Isabelle said.