About Trident Grills
Our story
Named for the insignia. Built for Tucson. Twenty-five years of cold beer, East Coast food and every game on.
The founder
From the SEAL Teams to Speedway
Nelson Miller served in the U.S. Navy from 1985 to 2005, most of it with the SEAL Teams out of Virginia Beach. In 1995 he came to Tucson for military freefall training and fell for the city and the desert right away. Trip after trip followed, and with retirement on the horizon he decided to open a sports bar with great food.
He opened the Original Trident on Speedway in August 2001 while still on active duty, retired after 20 years in 2005 and moved west for good. Twenty-five years later there are three Trident Grills and the Trident Pizza Pub, and Nelson runs them with fellow owners Danny Gallego and Jason Machamer.
The name
Why “Trident”
The trident is the Naval Special Warfare insignia worn by every Navy SEAL. It is on our sign because it is where we come from, and we carry it with respect.
Trident was also built to be a place where veterans and the Tucson military community can grab a beer, eat and laugh together.
The food
East Coast, in the desert
The idea was simple: why can’t a sports bar serve something better than bad bar food? Nelson brought East Coast flavor to the Southwest, with Old Bay peel-and-eat shrimp, baked crab cakes, oysters and his grandmother’s recipe for clam chowder, alongside oversized sandwiches and Harris Ranch burgers.
That mix of variety and quality is still the heart of the menu, along with the Navy SEAL burger challenge for anyone brave enough.
25 years
How we got here
- 1995Nelson Miller, then serving on the SEAL Teams out of Virginia Beach, comes to Tucson for military freefall training and falls for the city and the desert.
- 2001Nelson opens the Original Trident at Speedway and Campbell in August, a few minutes from the University of Arizona.
- 2005Nelson retires after 20 years in the Navy and moves west for good.
- 2016Trident II opens in Plaza Palomino on Swan Road, bringing Trident to the east side.
- 2018Trident Pizza Pub opens in December at 446 N Campbell Ave, with a brick wood-fired oven.
- 2019Trident IV opens on Ina Road west of Shannon, serving Tucson’s northwest side.
- 2026Trident turns 25 and celebrates with all-day happy hour at every location in August.
Executive committee
The owners
Nelson Miller
Danny Gallego
Jason Machamer
Community
Grass-roots, always
The local community and the military have supported Trident from day one, so we support them back: military charities, local high schools, animal shelters and intramural sports. That grass-roots support is the foundation of everything we do.