By Monica Chen

mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

DURHAM — Tobacco Road Sports Cafe plans to open its first Durham location in the American Tobacco Campus this spring with a 5,200-square-foot patio overlooking the field at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The new restaurant, which is shooting for an April opening, will be in 8,800 square feet in Diamond View II.

Inside, the restaurant will have mock stadium seating, with a wall of television screens that can be viewed by customers seated in recliners at the base, booths at the next level and tables at the level after that. The outdoor patio will be heated and cooled, depending on the season, and in proximity to the iconic Durham Bull sign.

Brian Amra, who opened the first Tobacco Road Sports Cafe a year ago with brothers Alex and Rommie Amra, said they picked American Tobacco because it was a perfect fit, as the traffic and fan enthusiasm for the Bulls will feed traffic to the restaurant. The original location is on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh.

“It’s going to be 12 months of straight business there,” Amra said, “and it’s such a beautiful property.”

Michael Goodmon, vice president of real estate for Capitol Broadcasting Company, the owner of American Tobacco, also said the restaurant will be a good fit at the campus.

“This is another big play toward making the campus not only Durham’s entertainment district, but the Triangle’s,” Goodmon said.

The restaurant was named for “Tobacco Road,” the sports rivalries among the various colleges in North Carolina, and the Amra brothers plan to open a restaurant in every Tobacco Road city — Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, and perhaps also Wilmington.

Amra also said the restaurant is a sports café, and not a sports bar, because of the quality of the food. Menu items include a pineapple barbecue shrimp burger, baby arugula and beet salad and jumbo black-eyed pea cakes, and price points range from $7.95 to $9.95 for sandwiches and $7.95 to $15.95 for entrées.

“The only thing we freeze is the ice cream,” Amra said.

The Durham location’s menu and décor will be similar to the original Raleigh location, just stepped up a bit, Amra said.

The brothers also own Amra’s, a cigar bar in Raleigh.