I’m into this. Phoenix athlete-owned restaurants can be gimmicky, sure, but the ones Copper Courier rounded up feel like more than a name on the door. The bigger takeaway to me is that some of these spots have turned into real destinations, not just vanity projects. That matters in a city that loves both a good meal and a good sports story.

The fun part: the athletes actually built something

Copper Courier says the Valley has five metro Phoenix restaurants owned by current and former pro athletes, and that range is the interesting part. You’ve got Hall of Fame basketball star Shaquille O’Neal behind Big Chicken, which first opened in 2018 with his childhood comfort-food favorites like chicken sandwiches and mac and cheese. In Arizona, the outlet says you can hit it in downtown Gilbert or at concessions inside ASU’s Mullett Arena or the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. That’s a pretty wide footprint for a concept that started with one restaurant.

Then there’s Chilte, where former NFL player Lawrence “L.T.” Smith made the jump from football to a Mexican restaurant inside the Egyptian Motor Hotel on Grand Avenue in 2023. Copper Courier notes that Chilte landed Smith in the semifinals for the James Beard Awards’ Emerging Chef category in 2025, which is exactly the kind of detail that tells me this place is being taken seriously beyond the athlete-owner angle. The menu changes with the seasons, but the outlet says moles and tacos are steady favorites. That sounds like a restaurant with actual momentum, not just a headline.

Why I think this trend works here

Phoenix is a sports town, obviously, but it’s also a town that rewards spots with a point of view. That’s why I think these athlete-owned places can land when they bring more than celebrity. Copper Courier’s list includes Majerle’s Sports Grill too, opened by former Phoenix Suns player Dan Majerle in downtown Phoenix in 1992. That one has been part of the local sports-and-food conversation for a long time, which is kind of the point: these places stick when they become part of the Valley routine.

And that’s what makes this whole list worth a look. It’s not just about who owns the place. It’s about whether the food, the vibe and the story all hold up once the novelty wears off. Based on the restaurants Copper Courier highlighted, a few of these definitely do.

Fat Jimmy