'It's going to be huge': Mike Miller bringing Let It Fly sports bar to Southaven's Silo Square

Former Memphis Grizzlies player Mike Miller is bringing his sports bar to DeSoto County.

Miller plans to open a third Let It Fly Sports Bar and Restaurant at Silo Square, the mixed-use development in Southaven. The restaurant will feature golf simulator bays as well as food and beverages.

"We're really excited to have Mike Miller bring his sports bar concept to Silo," said Brian Hill, the developer of Silo Square. "It's going to be really unique, a sure enough add for Silo."

Miller's first Let It Fly sports bar opened in 2019 at 9091 Poplar in Germantown, where customers are able to rent the two Full Swing Golf Simulator bays by the hour. In March of this year, plans were announced to open a second Let it Fly sports bar in The Lake District, a 160-acre multi-use space under development in Lakeland.

DESOTO COUNTY DEVELOPMENT: Silo Square, walkable neighborhoods and the rise of mixed-use developments in DeSoto

DESOTO COUNTY SCHOOLS: 'A better future for Mississippi': DSCD superintendent elected to MASS board of directors

"Anybody enjoys a sports bar," Hill said. "But the golf portion is just something we don't have down here, Southaven had hoped that we would get TopGolf, but they ended up going out off of Germantown Road. But this is a really cool golf-themed concept that is a lot like TopGolf, but maybe even a little better. You've got your choice of so many different golf courses that you can play on the simulator and it's heated and cooled, and you aren't playing in the rain. It's going to be huge. It's a good build."

The Silo Square location will be built in the corner lot on the right of the south entrance, directly in front of the silo. It was the last lot Hill had available on Getwell. The plans are drawn up and will go in front of the Southaven City Planning Commission on Aug. 29. Hill doesn't see any reason why it won't be approved.

The restaurant plans to break ground this fall with a summer 2023 opening date.

"When I started Silo Square, I had a vision of what I wanted it to be when it was finished, and once we started creating it and people recognized and saw that I was going to create the vision that I spoke about, people started calling me," Hill said. "So Mike Miller actually called me, I did not call him. And he wanted to be a part of Silo Square, and we've been talking about it now for probably five to six months. Once we started talking about it, we quickly got it under contract."

Silo Square currently has a variety of businesses, such as Vampire Penguin, City Hall Cheesecake, a women’s boutique called Dappled and Staks Pancake Kitchen.

Miller was a popular shooting guard for almost seven seasons with the Grizzlies, from the mid-point of the 2002-2003 season through 2008 and again in 2013-2014.

NEW MEMPHIS RESTAURANTS: From Vietnamese cuisine to a speakeasy, 6 new spots to try

THINGS TO DO IN SOUTHAVEN: The Mid-South Fair is back with a Jon Pardi show, pig races and plenty of fun

After ending his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets in 2017, Miller spent two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiter with the University of Memphis Tigers. He then spent one season as head basketball coach at Houston High School in Germantown and in 2021, coached the team to its first ever basketball state championship.

Hill hopes this name recognition can help Silo Square when it comes to the development's charity events. Multiple events are held at Silo Square throughout the year to raise money for local and national charities. A car show will be held this October to benefit St. Jude and every year they have a Christmas tree sale. Last year, Silo Square gave away a quarter of a million dollars, Hill said. A lot of the money went to Ukraine this year, Hill said, while half of the money stays local.

"So having Mike involved, and the draw that Mike can bring, it's huge," Hill said. "And that's what I thought about, right out the gate when I started talking to Mike. And I actually mentioned it to him, I said, 'Now Mike, to be a part of Silo, you've got to be a part of all the charitable things that we do.' And he was all in, so that's what I'm most excited about to be honest with you. The restaurant's really cool, but having Mike help us give back to our community is huge for me."

Gina Butkovich covers DeSoto County, storytelling and general news. She can be reached at 901-232-6714  or on Twitter @gigibutko.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Mike Miller's Let It Fly sports bar coming to Southaven's Silo Square