Uncle Mike's Opens, Sign Welcomes Brandon, Plant City Patrons

Open for business is the second Uncle Mike's Smokehouse Grill location, this one at the juncture of State Road 60 and Country Road 39 in Plant City.

Mike and Simone Tolley, owners and operators of Uncle Mike's Smokehouse Grill at Brandon Harley, delivered, as promised, on the Aug. 8 grand opening of their Plant City eatery, which takes over the space vacated by Cowboys Steakhouse and Saloon.

"I'm pretty tickled about it, we put a lot of work into it," said David Howell, a partner in the enterprise, at the newly opened eatery Aug. 9. "Everybody's thinking it's going to be another Cowboys and it's not going to be another Cowboys. It's not just a bar. It's a family oriented restaurant first, and an after-hours bar, second."

In addition to dining seating, the restaurant features pool tables and darts; deer-hunting and crane games; a photo booth; a bar section; and a photo booth.

Located at 106 East State Road 60, the 11-acre site features both an 8,000- square-foot log cabin building and a 3,000- square-foot open pavilion that the Tolleys will be using. Also on the site is a roughly 10,000- square-foot retail building that might be used in the future and an 8-acre arena that will be used for quarterly events, such as bike shows and rodeos.

This weekend's grand-opening activities continues with live country music tonight, Aug. 10, featuring Plant City's The Clemons Road Band.

For the record, Simone Tolley, who was due to give birth to the couple's first child, had not yet delivered as of early evening Friday, Aug. 9.