Beamer's Hampton restaurant closes

It was a rough week for Frank Beamer.

Beamer's Virginia Tech football team lost the Sugar Bowl 23-20 to the University of Michigan on Tuesday night and, after 18 months in business, Frank Beamer's American Grill at Peninsula Town Center in Hampton has closed.

The restaurant's general manager said the owners couldn't make the concept work in Hampton Roads, said Ashley Martin, a spokeswoman for Peninsula Town Center, in an email.

Beamer opened the eatery with partner Stephan Parry, who owns several other restaurants in Virginia, in June 2010. It closed Monday. Half of its 18 employees have found other jobs, said Roy Badgley, the restaurant's general manager.

Badgley wrote in an email that the owners plan on "tweaking the concept" and moving it closer to Virginia Tech, which is in Blacksburg.

A new restaurant serving Indian food already is slated to take Beamer's place. Monsoon, Eclectic Modern Indian, a second location for the owners of Saffron Indian Bistro in Town Center in Virginia Beach, plans to open in the spring.

Darshak and Dharti Patel plan to have a decor and some menu items that are different from their first restaurant, so they gave it a different name.