Tony Brothers Rumors

Tony Brothers opened a restaurant in downtown Norfolk on Tuesday. But he’s not allowed to eat there. For 15 years or more, the Booker T. Washington high school and Old Dominion University grad had dreamed of opening the sort of place he likes to go while traveling all over the country and world for his day job: tender steaks, live jazz, fine wine and small-batch bourbon.

These days, his other job makes going to restaurants a little bit complicated. For 27 years, Brothers has been a referee for the National Basketball Association. He’s one of the most recognizable and longest-serving referees in the sport, one of the few to have officiated in the finals for each of the past nine years. And during the coronavirus pandemic, the association’s quarantine rules mean he can’t stop by his own Norfolk restaurant even when he’s on a break. “We’re still quarantined even when we’re home,” he says. “If we end up doing something or going somewhere, we’re going to taint the pool. It’s a different life; a different world.”

Tony Brothers hopes to eventually host bourbon and wine tastings and attract the sort of jazz artists he admires, such as South African singer-guitarist Jonathan Butler or Grammy winner Gerald Albright. “Once a month, they could come in for a weekend set,” Brothers said. “That’s something that doesn’t exist here: dinner at a fine dining restaurant with a concert afterwards.”