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Phatz Sports Bar and Grille officially opened in May with both indoor and outdoor seating. RUSTY DURHAM PHOTOS
Phatz Sports Bar is local entrepreneurs’ newest play — to Treasure Coast
BY ELLEN GILLETTE
Friends, family, and local dignitaries gathered for the restaurant’s ribbon cutting.
If there’s one thing the business world agrees on, it’s that restaurants are among the most challenging of ventures. High startup and overhead costs, as well as the logistics involved in acquiring and retaining staff, and creating a menu and a marketing plan can be daunting. As many as 30% of new restaurants close their doors within a year.
Tessa and Robert Adams have beat the odds — and not just once. When their rental property on Avenue D stood vacant, they opened a restaurant there, along with two food trucks. In 2018, they moved to 412 N. U.S. Hwy. 1, as Phatz Chick N Shack. Their Vero restaurant opened in 2017.
The Adamses’ newest restaurant, Phatz Sports Bar and Grille, is at 421 N. US 1 in Fort Pierce. After a successful soft opening in April, the grand opening on May 5 brought a crowd hungry for the signature “finger-lickin” sauce and specialties.
This new venture represents the culmination of many years of hard work, determination, talent and faith. “Our mission is to be the best sports bar on the Treasure Coast,” Tessa Adams said. “Our goal is to give the very best customer service and good drinks — a hometown feel.”
Given the Adamses’ history, that mission is within reach.
Tessa Adams stops to chat with patrons on Phatz’s busy opening day.
LOCAL ROOTS
Tessa Adams — honored as the 2023 Women Who Rock Small Business Owner of the Year — has been an entrepreneur her entire adult life. Her Signature Salon was the first Black-owned hair salon in downtown Fort Pierce.
She trained at Indian River Community College, where her future husband was training to be a barber at the same time — although their paths didn’t cross back then. “My brother and him were best friends,” Tessa said. “And then I was his boss.”
Today, Robert runs the salon but cooks three days a week, making gallons of their secret sauce for both their Fort Pierce and Vero locations. Some of that sauce is bottled for sale, along with t-shirts and other merchandise.
When the Adamses first decided to move the restaurant on Avenue D, realtors encouraged them to look for possibilities in Port St. Lucie. The Adamses, however, were adamant.
“We’re not about that,” Tessa wrote for a #FortMade post for the City of Fort Pierce. “We love our town. We started here and are going to keep it here. People think there’s this stigma about Fort Pierce, but once you visit our little town, meet the people and settle in, you realize it’s all talk. There are really good, down-to-earth people here; the community is so vibrant and loving — we couldn’t be happier to share our passion with our city.”
HELPING HANDS
The menu at Phatz features both tried-and-true items from earlier incarnations and new dishes.
The Adamses received invaluable help from Tom Kindred at the Florida Small Business Development Center at the Pruitt Campus of IRSC in Port St. Lucie. “He was instrumental,” Tessa said.
Kindred and several associates attended the grand opening. “Our mandate and mission [at SBDC] is to provide credentialed assistance and support,” Kindred said. “We helped Tessa with the business plan, gathering documentation, and helped her access the capital she needed — also with the website and social media presence.”
Jacquin and Sons, a Fort Pierce construction company since 1940, built the new restaurant — but only after the Adamses had done their own kind of site prep. In August 2023, they went to the vacant lot that once housed Ace window tinters and Baslow-Henschel Motors. Robert walked the perimeter, symbolically anointing the land with oil, consecrating it for a purpose. Tessa anointed the construction sign.
“One thing I can say about this building, is that it’s prayed up,” Tessa said. “Once they started building the foundation, every day we put something in the ground. We put a Bible in the ground. Once they started building the walls, I put verses in the walls.”
One of the construction workers took note. “He made me laugh,” Tessa said. “‘Mami, you got secrets all over this building.’”
The Adamses also have plans to upgrade their Vero location. “They’re using the original menu still because they don’t have the staffing to do some of the things we’re going to do on the new menu,” Tessa said. “I just brought in a new manager, though, and we’re working on revamping that store to mirror the Fort Pierce store.”
FULL SERVICE
Robert Adams III operates a barber shop in Fort Pierce but also makes the restaurant’s famous secret sauce.
Two members of the staff who will definitely stick around are sons Antoine Barber and Robert Adams IV. Barber, a graduate of local schools and Florida A&M, is in charge of the family business. “He’s my boss,” Tessa said. “He’s got the energy.”
Adams IV is still in high school, working part-time on the weekends at Phatz. “He can cook; he’s really good at it,” Tessa said. “I’m just helping build generational wealth for my kids.”
Even during COVID, workers were not let go. “It was easy for us to morph into delivery,” Tessa said. “But I like the dining experience. Here, we chose not to do drive-through. There’s a pick-up window, but traffic would have been too bad. This is nice: you come in, get your food hot and fresh, dine in, enjoy the atmosphere.”
Beautiful landscaping invites patrons in to enjoy the TV screens, eclectic music and full bar. The restaurant has seating for more than 40, with an outside area that can accommodate 50. A back room is available to rent for special events.
“We always had beer and wine, but now we have liquor,” Tessa said. Obtaining the new license was easier than anticipated, as Florida law changed in 2023, lowering the minimum seating requirement for a restaurant liquor license and making it easier for smaller restaurants to qualify.
LOCAL HEROES
Special sports memorabilia decorate Phatz’s walls, including a signed bat from major league baseball’s Charles Johnson, a Fort Pierce Westwood alum. Other items honor Treasure Coast stars Khalil Mack, Jamien Sherwood, Clarence and Robert Weathers, Alycia Parks and others. The 1971 state championship 4A football team from Fort Pierce Central High School will have special recognition with a photograph and plaque.
Fort Pierce’s Mayor Linda Hudson saw many familiar faces at the grand opening. “Phatz is a family-owned place where everyone is family. It’s a great new building for a very well-known establishment that brightens up the neighborhood.”
