PDQ, the restaurant chain that entered the CSRA market in September of 2014, closed yesterday. H2 Restaurant Partners LLC, based in Tampa Florida, had the rights to North Florida and Georgia markets for the chain founded by Outback co-founder Bob Basham and Nick Reader, former CFO of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
H2 Restaurant Partners is made up of Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley, former college star Tim Tebow and 21-year veteran of the NFL Vinny Testaverde, along with Tampa based personal injury attorney Todd Alley.
The company acquired one of the most high traffic corners in Columbia County, which at the time was occupied by a nearly 100 year old small white clapboard and stone building at North Belair and Washington roads.
The building, which had most recently served as a quaint gift shop called Strictly Country for twenty five years, once served as a teachers’ dormitory when children attended the Evans School across Washington Road now occupied by Home Depot.
The four men already had plans for the second location when the first PDQ opened. In March of 2016, the men opened the second area location closer to Augusta National, also on Washington Road at I-20. That location closed two years later.
Interestingly, the parcel was once owned by fellow Augusta National member Clay Boardman and operated as a Smile Gas.
