Although portions of the bar and restaurant remain closed, the owner is optimistic about eventually opening in its entirety
Hans Kruse and Phil Campbell were like any two men having a beer in Athens Wednesday evening, though their glasses in Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery, 24 W. Union, rested only a wall away from the blackened and destroyed properties of Sunday’s fire.
Kruse, professor at Ohio University’s J. Warren McClure School of Information and Telecommunication Systems, had seen that the Jackie O’s Brew Pub would be open again for business at 5 p.m. Wednesday on Facebook, after three days of being closed.
“It’s good to see Jackie O’s back,” he said. “Come Friday, there will be a line out the door.”
Reopening Jackie O’s in its entirety, however, will be difficult. Its kitchen was housed in The Union Bar & Grill, 18 W. Union St., and was destroyed by the fire. However, the Brew Pub remains intact, though The Public House could take months more to open. The patio to Jackie O's is also "temporarily closed," according to a piece of notebook paper taped to its entrance in the back.
“The beer and food are too good to turn this place down,” Campbell, associate professor and director at OU’s J. Warren McClure School, said.
Heather Thornton, human resources director for Jackie O’s, said the staff was planning to open the Brew House as soon as possible, though restoration emergency cleaners ServPro had been clearing the area for smoke damage a day before. She said the Brew House might open a small-scale kitchen, or consider having food trucks outside.
Roughly 20 servers had to be laid off with the closure of the Public House, she said. About 31 people total had been laid off as of Wednesday, though Thornton said their positions are promised to be there when the Public House sees resurgence.
Art Oestrike, owner of Jackie O’s, said that the tap room is only a small percentage of what his business does, so it will operate as a “completely different creature” now.
“Keeping a level head has been important,” he said. “There’s meetings I have to go to every minute all the time with landlords and insurance, while keeping all of our other arms functioning so that we can pay the bills.”
Oestrike, though, is hopeful. He said that it’s not too often you get to start over.
“We get to reboot,” he said. “You have to find something good.”
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