Huntsville restaurant that was closing permanently now reopening: ‘Our dream will live on!’
After announcing this week that it would close permanently “effective immediately,” Huntsville’s Shagnasty’s Grubbery & Pour House now says the restaurant and bar will reopen “soon.”
The steakhouse and pub known as “The Shag” is located at 1117 Jordan Lane off of University Drive.
“The Shag” will re-open soon. Stay tuned,” the restaurant posted on Facebook. “Thank you for all the people who have reached out to us and it sure is nice to know we have a customer base second to none. To all the Musicians who have played and now will continue to play here we built this for you! Our dream will live on!”
The announcement comes just days after the restaurant said it was closing for good.
“We have decided to close the Shag permanently effective Immediately,” the restaurant’s reps said in a Facebook post on Monday.
They also said the restaurant would hold a liquidation sale Saturday where “everything is for sale,” but that sale is now canceled, according to the Facebook post.
“We have decided to go in a different direction,” it said. “The bar business takes up to much of our time. It was good run! Proud of what we have done in 7 years and unfortunately our priorities have changed.
“We wish everyone the best and hope the memories we shared live on!”
Opening five years ago, Shagnasty’s quickly filled Huntsville’s “rock bar” void. Organizers brought in notable touring hard-rock bands like Buckcherry and Dirty Honey. The Shag was also the place to catch top local bands, like Hunnivega and 53 Judges.
The restaurant is a favorite of service industry professionals and musicians who raved about the steaks. At Shagnasty’s, you can wear a Metallica shirt, faded jeans and sneakers and fit right in.
The restaurant successfully flipped the steak script from fine-dining to comfort food, thanks in part to their “Steak Day,” when they offered a discount on the beef entree. They also grill ribeye, porterhouse T-bone and sirloin. You can get a side salad, baked potato or loaded potato if you didn’t want fries.
Married couple Louis Grant and Trena Grant own and operate Shagnasty’s. The name Shagnasty’s is a shortened version of the nickname the Grants had for the O’Shaughnessy Avenue area of Huntsville’s Five Points neighborhood, where Louis lived when he and Trena first met. “We dropped the ‘O’ because we didn’t want it to sound too Irish,” Grant told AL.com.
As a young adult, Louis lived in the Seattle area during the rise of the ‘90s grunge music from there, and he’s remained partial to bands like Alice in Chains ever since. In the Seattle area, he cooked at local Mexican restaurants before joining the Army. After getting out of the service, he got into the construction business.
At Shagnasty’s, Louis mainly oversees back-of-the-house, while Trena, who previously worked in the legal field, handles front-of-house and bookkeeping. “We control everything, every aspect of it, and it’s a beautiful thing,” Louis told AL.com in 2023. “We’ve been married 14 years and haven’t killed each other, so it seems to be working.”
Shagnasty’s Grubbery & Pour House owners Trena and Louis Grant. (Courtesy Louis Grant)