ONTARIO – Going to the hardware store is often a search for a specific item.
水暖器材. 或者一个新的灯具.
但是啤酒?
At Ontario’s Ace Hardware store on Southwest 4th 街, gliding down the aisles with a cold craft 啤酒 in hand is now part of the shopping experience.
Tucked into a corner of the store near the soap section, Zach and Tori撒切尔 opened “The Bar at Ontario Ace” last fall.
The bar offers craft 啤酒s, wine on tap and coffee. The duo elected to do a “soft opening” of the new feature, said Tori撒切尔.
“We took about a month to do the final touches and get everything up and running,”撒切尔说。.
The bar area includes a bar top, 16 seats and “a kind of couch seating area,”撒切尔说。.
Thatcher said the bar offers wheat, stout and India pale ale 啤酒s. 这家酒吧还提供桶装苹果酒, wine and domestic 啤酒s – such as Coors Light – for sale in the bottle.
Around the bar Thatcher said she “kind of created a boutique home goods area.”
“That’s house plants, kitchen ware, things like that. It is kind of its own little store inside the store,”撒切尔说。.
The bar, said Thatcher, was a marriage of ideas that stems from her and Zach’s background.
Tori, 30, and Zach, 31, grew up in Baker City. There Zach’s family was in the hardware business while Tori’s father owned and operated Barley Brown’s Beer, 啤酒厂兼餐厅.
When the couple decided last spring to buy Ontario Ace Hardware – formerly Kinney Bros & Keele True Value Hardware – Tori said a key condition for her was the prospect of opening a small bar.
“We had an agreement that there would be a little section where I could do my thing. I didn’t know how people were going to feel but I wanted to try it,”撒切尔说。.
Tori said the liquor license includes the whole store.
“People come in a question it and say, really, I can just carry this 啤酒 around? I tell them, yes, as long as you don’t walk out the door with it,”撒切尔说。.
The Thatcher’s didn’t advertise the new bar because they “wanted to get it out there on its own,托丽说.
“So far we’ve gotten really positive feedback. It is starting to pick up on the weekends,”撒切尔说。.
Thatcher said in December the store used the bar as the centerpiece of a special ladies night celebration with live music.
“So far it’s going really good,”撒切尔说。.
Thatcher said the couple is “tossing around” the idea of doing a live music night at the store “when the weather gets nicer and people are more out and about.”
A realization that the hardware store also contains a bar is getting around, said Thatcher.
“Customers can grab a 啤酒 and walk around and shop,”撒切尔说。.
The new bar wasn’t the only changes the Thatcher’s made to the store.
“We did an entire remodel of the store, top to bottom. We moved product around, all new lighting,”撒切尔说。.
“It was a lot of work for the first few months. Once we got through it and ever since our grand opening, we’ve had really positive feedback from the community,”撒切尔说。.
Thatcher said the couple had not owned or operated a business before they bought the Ontario hardware operation.
“It’s been a learning curve definitely. It’s been a challenge and every day has something new,”撒切尔说。.
The store employs more than 20 people.
So far, Thatcher said, owning a hardware store that offers 啤酒 is “going really well.”
“I think now that people are seeing what we did in a positive light and seeing all the new exciting changes we’ve made it is starting to turn around,”撒切尔说。.
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