Old-time restaurant returns with new look, same values

Bombay Bicycle Club has returned, opening today at 1717 E. Cherokee, the former location of Mike’s Place. Those who remember it can expect the same style of dining with an updated look, said co-owner Jim Garland, former general manager of Chardonnay.

Garland and co-owner Tom Smith purchased the rights to the restaurant name after the Burbank, Calif.-based chain went out of business in May. Its Springfield location on Battlefield Road closed in 1998.

“When the old Bombay was here, it was the happening place,” Garland said. “Everybody met there after work, it was for college people late at night, it was the place everybody took their kids for birthday parties – it was huge.”

The 3,900-square-foot building includes a new 900-square-foot patio and seats about 160 guests. The décor and menu are familiar with a hint of 20th century taste, but little has changed to the restaurant’s at-home environment.

“It has the same type of feel that it did – that cozy, comfortable feel that no matter what you did, any type of person was drawn to it,” Garland said. “The way the staff knew everybody by name, it was just one of those places that felt like home. That’s what we’re trying to re-create.”

Bombay Bicycle Club is open every day 11:30–1:30 a.m., with happy hours held 4-7 p.m. and 10 p.m.–12 a.m.

For more information about Bombay Bicycle Club's return to Springfield, see the Sept. 26 issue of SBJ.