Bristol McAlister's Holds Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Donates $1,800 to Local Food Drive

Bristol, VA. (November 15, 2018) — McAlister's Deli in Bristol celebrated its opening with a ribbon cutting and check presentation on Thursday, November 15th. Local media, government officials, and neighboring businesses gathered at 10 a.m. outside of the new location on Euclid Avenue to commemorate the event. 

The ribbon cutting came one week after the restaurant opened to the public on November 8th. The intervening week was Peak Restaurants' largest for an opening, with the most guests served in an opening week in company history.

At the event, Peak Restaurants also donated a portion of its first week's sales—$1,800 total—to The Junior League Baseball of Bristol VA/TN for the league's Thanksgiving Dinner Drive, an annual event that provides full Thanksgiving meals and weekend provisions to identified students within the Bristol school systems in Tennessee and Virginia. 

Peak Restaurants, which operates now 13 McAlister's Delis in Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee, is proud to serve the Bristol community, having long been connected to the Twin Cities. Its corporate offices are there. Co-owner Jeff Shawl grew up there. And Don Shawl—also a co-owner and Jeff's father—started Arbico East, Peak Restaurants' sister company and a franchisee of Arby's, in Bristol in 1982. 

​Chris Smith, another Peak co-owner, noted the restaurant group's closeness with the area when he shared a few words at the event: "Bringing a McAlister's here to Bristol," he said, "feels a lot like coming home."