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Small Business Spotlight – Geer Street Garden

While a partner at the Piedmont Restaurant in Durham, Andy Magowan would pass by the old Fletcher’s Gulf Station on the corner of Foster and Geer streets. “That would make a great little restaurant,” Magowan thought to himself. In the fall of 2010, after deciding to leave Piedmont, he jumped at the chance to lease the building and just seven months later Geer Street Garden served its first customers in May of 2011. “We are a gastropub committed to using quality ingredients, preparing everything as carefully as possible all in a relaxing atmosphere,” said Magowan.

The restaurant seats 45 inside and nearly 80 outside on the patio that Magowan built when he opened the restaurant. With a menu that is chock full of favorites, from the Reuben to the Cobb salad, to the infamous “Pile” (a diet-destroying agglomeration of french fried, fried chicken, bacon, melted cheddar cheese, jalapeños, gravy & cheese sauce.) The restaurant has become a community favorite.

 “Geer Street is a place that no matter who you are, there is something for everybody,” he said. “In today’s world, people can feel alienated, but not here. My goal is to have a place where everyone can feel normal.”

In fact, the restaurant’s communal seating often leads to parties of four merging with the folks seated next to them, turning two separate parties of four into a party of eight. From a meal to a marriage, Geer Street brings people together and that, Magowan said, makes him very happy.

Geer Street Garden also specializes in large group gatherings, including rehearsal dinners, business gatherings and small conferences. Catering is an option through Happy Cardinal Catering, the hospitality venture from Geer Street Garden and Magowan’s other restaurant, The Boot. Order lunch from Geer Street and Andrew might deliver it himself. That is how much he enjoys people.

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