Restaurants in uptown Athens see a spike in customers during fest season.
Josh Thomas, the owner of Brenen’s Coffee Cafe, calls fest season a "roller coaster."
“We get really busy Saturday morning till about noon or one o’clock, because everyone wants to fuel up before they go,” Thomas said. “Then we’re actually pretty slow in the afternoon and evening. But then Sunday morning we get crushed again because everybody wakes up, and they want food.”
Brenen’s, located at 38 S. Court St., is not the only restaurant in Athens that sees a spike in customers and shenanigans in the spring.
Similarly, for O’Betty’s Red Hot, fest season is the restaurant's busiest time of the year, owner Tracy Duncan said in an email.
“We have more business than usual on Saturday afternoons and see a lot of intoxicated college-aged patrons beginning as early as 2 p.m. on those days,” Duncan said in an email. “Unfortunately, we sometimes have to to close our dining room early and switch to window service on fest Saturdays due to the rowdiness of drunken customers.”
Closing the dining room early at the 15 W. State St. eatery upsets regular customers and families, Duncan said in an email.
Duncan said O'Betty's workers sometimes see drunken behavior, including people stealing items and fighting on the sidewalk late at night, when working.
Even though Brenen’s sees an increase in customers during the day of a fest weekend, the biggest fest for them is Number Fest, Thomas said. This year's Number Fest will be April 15 and 16.
“When you bring that many people to town, you are going to be a little bit busier,” Thomas said.
Stan Folden, the general manager at Union Street Diner, 70 W. Union St., said the restaurant sees an influx of traffic at the restaurant, which has a big impact. He said the diner doubles its food order for fest season.
“It’s pretty hectic (during fest season)," Folden said. "Our weekends are pretty busy anyways, but it definitely doubles."
This year's Mill Fest wasn’t that bad for the diner, Folden said, but High Fest can be worse because of the proximity.
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Folden said customers start arriving at the diner at about 8 a.m. He said customer traffic stays consistent until about 12:30 p.m. and picks up again around 5 p.m.
“It runs all night and doesn’t stop until about 3 a.m.,” Folden said. “It keeps us hopping. (Fest-goers) seem to love the fried food, mac bites (and) chicken tenders."
Folden said during the spring he usually sees a few fights and muddy floors in addition to people vomiting.
“Everybody seems to get sick,” he said.
For Kaylee Perkins, the part-time day manager at Uptown Grill, Number Fest reminds her of The Walking Dead.
“You see (the people) all walk up the street, and everybody has this dead stare, and they are so muddy,” Perkins said.
Heather Hruska, a freshman studying exercise physiology, enjoyed a Chicken-n-Waffle sandwich from Uptown Grill after going to Mill Fest this past weekend.
She said the line for food wasn’t too long after the fest, as there were about three people in front of her when she got in line.
Located at 11 W. Union St., Uptown Grill may see an uptick in customer, but Perkins said she also likes to see the different outfits fest-goers sport.
And for the rest of fest season?
“It’s going to be really busy and sleepy," Perkins said.
@megankhenry
