MECHANICVILLE, Va. — Great American Ranch, the local country-style restaurant and self-described saloon, has expanded beyond its original homestead in Midlothian. It opened a new location at 7514 Lee-Davis Road in Mechanicsville last month, bringing American food, 24 beers on tap, live music, and its signature mechanical bull to a whole new end of the region.

Co-owner Mauro Garrido has worked in nightclub management for years, opening bars all over the country. He started his first country bar in Florida nine years ago and proceeded to open more than half a dozen across the U.S. Someone reached out to him with an idea for a country bar in Richmond about seven years ago and, “the rest is history,” Garrido says.