Ted’s has 38 locations in 14 states. | Photo courtesy of Ted’s Montana Grill
The first line of Ted Turner’s obituary does not mention restaurants. And why would it? Turner, who died last month at the age of 87, transformed the media industry with CNN, which pioneered the 24-hour news cycle and became the foundation of a sprawling media empire that would include TNT, TCM and Cartoon Network.
And that was just the start of Turner’s long and varied career. The tireless Southern businessman also owned the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks; captained the winning yacht in the prestigious America’s Cup race; created the animated TV series “Captain Planet”; and made a $1 billion donation to the United Nations, to name just a few of his accomplishments.
It’s not until the 15th paragraph of Turner’s official obituary that mention is made of Ted’s Montana Grill, the casual-dining chain Turner co-founded in 2001 with restaurateur George McKerrow, the creator of LongHorn Steakhouse.
But Ted’s was more than a footnote in Turner’s sweeping life story. The media mogul was also an environmentalist, and the restaurant was intertwined with his efforts to preserve and improve the American landscape, and in particular, the American bison.
“The restaurants were the most important business that Ted was involved in after his media career,” said McKerrow, who remains CEO of Ted’s today.
The two men met in the early ’80s, when Turner would dine at the LongHorn Steakhouse on Atlanta’s Peachtree Street. McKerrow was involved in the March of Dimes and invited Turner’s daughter, Laura Turner Seydel, to join the nonprofit’s board of directors. That kicked off what would become a close friendship between the two families.
McKerrow and Turner were business partners and close friends.
In 1989, between launching TNT and creating the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship for fiction, Turner began pursuing conservationism in earnest. He acquired a huge ranch near Yellowstone Park, sold off its cattle and began to fill it with American bison.
Once a fixture of the American plains, bison were hunted to near extinction by frontiersmen in the late 1800s, mainly for their hides. Conservation and husbandry efforts gradually built the population back from hundreds of animals to hundreds of thousands, with Turner playing a key role. He grew his initial group of 4,000 bison into the largest herd in the world, with as many as 51,000 head across 15 ranches.
Turner’s interest in bison rubbed off on McKerrow, who became fascinated with bison meat. Far leaner than beef and packed with nutrients like iron and omega-3s, it profiled as an ideal protein for health-conscious consumers.
“It is a very special meat,” McKerrow said.
He thought it would make a great menu item at LongHorn, Capital Grille and Bugaboo Creek Steak House, then owned by Rare Hospitality. But when he pitched his idea to the team, executives were unenthused, and maybe for good reason.
At the time, there was little market for the meat, which had become a problem for the upstart bison industry. The population was thriving, but demand was limited to high-end restaurants that were interested only in filets. Average consumers weren’t accustomed to cooking the lean meat, and there was also a misperception that bison were still endangered.
Ranchers “ended up with a four-year supply in the freezer,” McKerrow said. “It just wasn’t going well, and bison ranchers were going broke.” Once again, the American treasure found itself on dangerous footing.
But McKerrow saw an opportunity to create a market for bison via the restaurant industry. During a trip to California, he wrote up a one-page concept idea for a Western-themed saloon specializing in bison hamburgers and milkshakes. He sent the idea to Turner through his daughter. “I said, ‘I think we could introduce bison to America’s table through this concept,’” McKerrow recalled.
Opening any restaurant is risky. But this one would be especially precarious, given its focus on a protein that most Americans were unfamiliar with.
Fortunately, Turner loved risk. He said yes, and the two men shook hands in May 2001. The first Ted’s Montana Grill opened in Columbus, Ohio, the following January.
It served more than just bison. There was a variety of beef, chicken, seafood, salads and desserts. It was the classic American grill that McKerrow had envisioned.
“I originally said, ‘Let’s not make it all about bison,’” he said. “Well, Ted designed the logo, and of course we hang a bison on the front door.”
Ted’s became known as the bison restaurant. And it quickly won over customers. Bison is a great product, McKerrow said, and Ted’s cooked it right—slow and low—and in different ways, including steaks, burgers, short ribs, pot roast and meatloaf.
“Customers fell in love with it,” he said. Today, about 40% of Ted’s sales are from bison-related products. And everywhere there’s a Ted’s location, McKerrow added, demand for bison at the grocery store goes up.
Bison accounts for 40% of sales at Ted’s.
Turner’s involvement helped put Ted’s on the map early on. When the restaurant debuted in Columbus, “we were on 260 television stations across the country, because Ted Turner was involved,” McKerrow said. “CNN came and covered us for the whole weekend.”
From there, Ted’s grew quickly, reaching 50 locations and more than $100 million in revenue in just six years while bringing bison to the masses.
The chain also helped lead the charge on sustainability in the industry. Ted’s reintroduced the paper straw, for instance, used to-go cups and cutlery made from cornstarch, and installed electric vehicle chargers in some of its parking lots. In 2009, Turner and McKerrow headlined the National Restaurant Association Show with a keynote on the “green restaurant revolution.”
“We did a lot of that kind of work back in the early 2000s to change the habits of the industry to be more sustainably minded,” McKerrow said.
Like many casual-dining chains, Ted’s took some lumps during the Great Recession and the pandemic, and today stands at 38 stores in 14 states, including Montana. Sales rose 4% in 2025, to nearly $109 million, according to Technomic data.
Despite the ups and downs, the company ultimately accomplished what Turner and McKerrow initially set out to do, which was generate interest in bison meat. Bison ranching is profitable today, and demand outweighs supply, McKerrow said, with bison on the shelves “in every grocery store in America.”
“Ted really did lead the charge to save the great American bison by building a restaurant group and then running it successfully,” he said.
By all accounts, Turner loved being a restaurateur. As Ted’s chairman, he and McKerrow spoke daily, and Turner visited the restaurants as often as possible. He enjoyed chatting with customers, whom he always encouraged to “just call me Ted”—his usual response when people addressed him as Mr. Turner.
“In the back half of Ted’s life, his third chapter, the restaurants were a very, very important part of that,” McKerrow said. “He was very, very proud to be a restaurateur all the way to the end.”
