February 14, 2024 • 29 mins
Mike Carl discusses everything that went into revitalizing the Bridge Tavern, his ther business ventures, and more in this latest episode.
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(00:19):
Well, welcome to CEOs you shouldknow. I am your host, Mike
Howard, chief operating officer at theWheeling Area Chamber of Commerce and glad to
be a host of this program.Partnered with iHeart Radio Wheeling for CEOs you
should Know, and sponsored by ourgood friends at West Banco. We love
our friends at West Banco. Thankyou very much for sponsoring CEOs you should
(00:42):
know. Well, we couldn't fiteverybody in the studio today for our guests,
so we got one and that ismister Mike Carl from the Bridge Tavern
and Grille, but other businesses aswell, and we're going to talk all
about that with Mike. Mike.Welcome to CEOs you should know. Thanks
Mike, I appreciate you inviting meover. We are on the heels of
a very successful, I think businessafter Hours it was wonderful and what a
great turnout. Yeah, you guysreally brought them in. We had a
(01:03):
lot of fun. Well I'd liketo take credit, but I'll tell you
what. People wanted to see whatyou did there, and some of them
had and they came back and otherswere like, oh yeah, I got
to guess a lot of curiosity gorgeousrenovation. I think it's fabulous and if
my wife likes it, it's reallygood. And she did. Oh,
I appreciate that. So that wasjust a few weeks back that we did
that to kick off the year.Now we're talking maybe we should just bridge
(01:25):
to the new year every year atthe bridge like it? Yep, I
think that would be appropriate. That'sa great lead into the new year.
Well, and the bridge just isn'teverything that you do. But before we
talk about some of the others,I do want to jump into what where
did the idea for this renovation startand how it was quite a process,
wasn't it. It was an extremelydetailed process. I think we got in
(01:47):
a bit over our heads, asI typically do, and I cannot relate
to that my visions in my head. But you know, we purchased the
building in twenty sixteen, my brotherand I, actually my two brothers and
I purchased the building. My olderbrother bowed out because he has his own
business in Pittsburgh and didn't want toget involved in another development business in Wheeling
(02:07):
because he lives in Pittsburgh. Sowe bought my brother out and it was
just my brother and I owning abuilding that was already occupied, so it
was fairly convenient for us. Ihad another job as a mechanical contractor,
and my brother had another job inAtlanta as a administrator for Fulton County,
and we bought the building but hadtenants so we could take our time because
(02:30):
we had rent pairs and the rentpairs were able to cover our mortgage,
so we were okay for a while. Well there you go. Yeah,
and we we started out in sixteenjust trying to cure the envelope, so
to speak. Put a roof onthe windows, needed board it up.
We're getting water in things like that, so we just kind of did that
baby steps into it. Sure,but you know, once you walk through
(02:53):
the building, you realize that thisthing needed some TLC. And this was
seventeen thirteen. Yeah, we boughtthe building. The former proprietor of the
Bridge Restaurant, Bridge Tavern and Grillwas George Dormous. We bought the building
off of George and he continued torun the tavern till twenty nineteen when he
(03:13):
decided it was time to spend someluxury time with Linda, his wife,
So that's when we took over thebusiness, but knowing that right before COVID,
no challenge there. Yeah, itwas really convenient. We took over
the business in nineteen and June ofnineteen and by March of twenty we were
shut down for the pandemic. Soit didn't work out the way we hoped,
(03:35):
but you know, it kind ofdrove us to start the remodel.
We were down anyway, we wereclosed. We knew it had to be
done because there's no grandfathering with newowners, so the city expects certain code
things to be done to old buildings. Yeah, stuff people don't remember think
about every day. So we couldn'tleave it the way it was. It
was impossible to do that anyway.We had to bring it up to code.
(03:59):
And we decided that point that thatwas going to be our home,
so let's let's start renovating. Andthat's kind of how we could let into
it. You know, I thinka lot of people and maybe in most
towns, when you drive around yousee a restaurant, it's attached to something.
You don't really know what else isin there, or who's running it
or how's it going, but youhave the whole establishment there. Correct,
that's correct, Yeah, we've gotwe've got some business offices and a gym
(04:20):
on two, and we've got livingspace on three and four. I live
on three, and then we've gotthe tavern in the front of the building.
We've got restrooms and a game roomin the center of the building,
and we have an event space thatseats about forty five to fifty in the
lower end. Used to be winningcoinn and hobby. Yeah, I've been
to a couple events. We hadour event that flowed in and out of
(04:42):
there with music in the tavern itself. It's a great it's a great way
to do it, do an eventdoing outing. All right, So learned
a lot the night we were there. But let's talk about the history of
that building. If people don't know, and I really didn't have a clue,
Well, it was before it iswhat it is, So you know,
folks like Steve Navatni probably have donea lot more research than I have.
But what I do know about thebuilding from the previous owner was it
(05:05):
was it was originally occupied the Bridgetavern area itself, that particular small footprint
that is the restaurant was originally occupiedby the Wheeling Transit Authority and they That's
why they called it the waiting roombecause you would go in there. They
owned all the street cars in downtownWheeling, and you would go in and
wait for the street car, soldconfectioneries and things like that. It was
(05:27):
originally just because of the construction thatwe did. It was originally a two
story building. Because when we torethe ceiling out on the second floor,
we found roofing paper, so thethird floor was added. I believe E.
B. Potts was the developer thatpurchased the building, and I don't
know who he actually purchased it fromthe Good family or I'm not sure who
actually owned it, but very regardless, the EB. Pots bought that Wheeling
(05:50):
Traction Company continued to operate their businessout of the corner of the building,
and he added the hotel. Youcan and you can see if you if
you stand outside and you look atthe brick, you can see the different
variations of brick where the construction startedand stopped. Okay, sometime in the
early nineteen twenties they added the fourthfloor. He had three floors because we
(06:11):
found roofing paper on the third flooras well. Now, what's interesting,
we're sitting here in the iHeart Studiosas part of the Capitol Music Hall building.
This was supposed to be. Therewas supposed to be a big hotel
up here, and who knows whathappened back then in the thirties with one
across the street and this one tryingto come in. I'm sure somebody knows
that story. Yeah, the originalWheeling hotel was where the Downtowner that's since
(06:31):
been mothballed sits now, and thenthe Bridge Tavern and Grill was originally in
that building. When they tore thatbuilding down in the early sixties, they
tore that building down to put thedowntowner in the Bridge Tavern Grill moved across
the street to where we are now, and that would have been mister Dormous
(06:53):
George's dad Pete. Yeah, thisis making me think they're I'm not the
guy who did, but there probablyought to be just a Wheeling historical podcast.
All these buildings and all these stories. There's so much here, and
I had the same curiosity as youdo when I drive by some of these
buildings. I wonder what's upstairs.I mean, I see what's downstairs,
but I wonder what's upstairs? Yeah, is it living? Is it something?
Is it nothing? Open space?Who knows? All right, well,
(07:14):
let's talk a little bit about thefamily, how you got into the
business, what would make you fromand you can tell us about your past
experience to want to run the BridgeTavern restaurant a bit of insanity. I
think. My brother and I havebeen traveling around for years to Memphis,
Austin, Nashville, Ashville, NorthCarolina. We just love the live music
(07:34):
stuff. We always thought that wasreally cool. And as we're sitting in
these in these event spaces and theseother towns, we get to after a
couple of cocktails, we get totalking about, Man, how cool would
this be if we could have somethinglike that in downtown Wheeling. You know,
we can. It's not it's nota destination town, but we can
certainly make it better. I thinkit'd just be awesome to have some nightlife
(07:55):
in downtown Wheeling. Talked about itfor years, and through some good fortune,
we ended up being able to purchasethis building. And I called my
brother and I said, I'm sittinghere with George Dormous. He's looking at
retiring in the next three to fouryears. He wants to sell the building.
What do you think. Doug saidsure, let's do it. So
we were all blame it on Doug. Right. We bought the building and
(08:16):
we'd looked at several buildings, lookedat the marsh Wheeling building. We looked
at the flat iron building that misterDuffin did. That's a beautiful building.
By the way, this one happenedto fit our needs. As far as
the music little venue. It's onthe corner people can see. We saw
the glass outside where you could seethe bands. We thought this is going
to be really neat. So wejust said, you know, I'm going
(08:37):
to be retiring here in another fiveor eight years. Let's do something.
So we just decided to jump intothe the music venue business, not understanding
at all the restaurant business, whichis quite difficult. All you restaurant tours
out there. Then what you figuredthat out? Huht is off to you
folks, Yeah, oh, nodoubt, no doubt. So you kind
(08:58):
of have a couple of business togo. You have the real estate and
then you have the the bridge tavernsign and explain those two to us how
they layed. If people were lookingfor you online, I guess yeah.
So we started a business back inthe early two thousands called Three Sons LLC.
And it was my dad had threeboys, and so it was myself,
(09:18):
my brothers and we purchased my folkshome. Dad was pretty smart.
He didn't want he didn't want itto go to a retirement home if he
got sick, so he sold itto his boys twenty years before he passed
away. Ye, so we boughtthe built. We bought the house off
my parents and in the house nextto them became available when the gentleman that
(09:41):
lived there passed away, and webought that house. We could control who
lives next to Mom and Dad.So we bought these through a small little
LLC that we set up my brothersand I. So we ended up buying
the bridge tavern through the same LLC. Three Sons. That's how it happened.
And then you know, as Imentioned when I called you, so
it pops up the pension doing business. As I'm always interested in, where
(10:01):
did these names come from? Well, that was our retirement. That's what
we called it, the pension.So the bar we were always going to
call the bar the pension, mybrother and I, so the three Sons
owned the building. Again, weseparated from my older brother who had his
own business going on in Pittsburgh,and when George decided he was time for
him to retire, we took overthe Bridge Tavern Grill as the Pension Incorporating
(10:24):
doing business as the Bridge Tavern Grill. So it's two separate endities. One
is an in corporation, the otherones in LLC. We had to form
it. It's really weird the waythe state works. But you can't transfer
gaming licenses, so he had gamingmachines in there. In order to keep
the gaming machine, we had tocreate our own in corporation or corporate entity.
(10:46):
Because George was a corporate entity.We merged the businesses together and then
we bought George out. That's howwe ended up keeping the gaming license.
Very interesting, all right, Sowe've got three sons LLC, the pension
doing business has the Bridge Tavern andGrill. Okay, So this is a
fun question that just popped in myhead because I'm an old Hyatt guy who
had Hyatt Hotels, had just customerservice ingrained in my brain. Tell me
(11:09):
from prior to owning and then owningand running, where was your mentality as
far as how important is customer serviceand now that you've run the bridge for
a few years, where is itnow? So I was had the great
fortune to work at H. NewmanCompany. Yeah, as a mechanical contractor.
And you're pretty much in the customerservice business. No matter what business
(11:33):
you're in, people call, peoplecomplain. You want to do the right
thing. You've got to serve whatthey're paying for. So we've been in
the customer service business for a goodwhile. We weren't. I was never
a widget guy. I didn't workon a factory line. I didn't have
an office cubicle as an engineer,and didn't do any of that stuff.
We were always I was always engagedwith the community, and whether that community
(11:54):
was an industrial processing plant, whetherit was Missus Smith's furnace. You've always
been engaged with the community anyway.We've been in the customer service business for
a while, just not the restaurantcustomer service business, which is completely unique
any other business out there. Soare you a wheeling guy? Did you
grow up here? Your brother's yourdad or have you moved around? What's
(12:15):
kind of been that wheeling guy allmy life? I was the only one
that never left. I have threeother sils you're a rare bird. Oh
yeah. I have a sister andtwo brothers and they all flew away.
We all remained very very close.My brother and my sister lived in Atlanta.
My older brother moved to Pittsburgh wherehe started several business He had a
Shlatsky's Deli, and then he hadRotelli's Restaurant and now he's got three daughters.
(12:39):
Wine and beverage. Oh wow.Yeah, so he's he's kind of
like me, gets gets a littlebit of ants, he wants to do
something else. Yeah. So myyounger brother, Doug has since come back
to participate in this because he retiredfrom the where'd he come from? Come
back from Atlanta? He was inwas Alana for twenty seven years. Oh
(13:00):
my gosh, that's a change.Yeah, retired as a administrator for Fulton
County Services. Okay, decided tocome back to Wheeling. That's awesome.
Well, we love having people comeback, and what we're trying to do
is the chambers see if we caneven keep them from leaving in the first
place. Absolutely, maybe we'll doa poster about you ever left. So
education wise, which maybe I'm datinghere, I'm assuming is a Wheeling Park
(13:20):
High School or was it maybe alittle before that. Yes, you are
correct in both. Okay, soyou were like one of the transition guys
two years at Wheeling High School,very cool. Went to Richie Junior High.
Okay, that's when they had juniorhigh middle schools, Richie Junior High.
They went to Wheeling High School fortwo years and we were the first
graduating class at Park in nineteen seventyseven. You're the alpha class. Yep,
(13:41):
we started. That is awesome.It was an absolute zoo that it
was three schools jammed together. Well, I have a daughter up there now
that loves that. Most of mykids went to Central, but she's got
that artsy and she loves the culinaryprogram. I mean, she is so
in. They do so many goodthings up there, and they've got their
competitions coming ups. Yeah. Itis just fabulous to see. So hopefully
what we're doing is, you know, creating some job people for folks like
(14:07):
you. We've hired a couple fromNorthern Community College Culinary Arts. Yeah.
In fact, one of our chefsthat's over there now is going back to
culinary Arts school. He'd liked tohave his own business one. Yeah.
Yeah, Well that's awesome. Sowe've delved into that a little bit.
We'll talk to us about the wholeemployee crunch. How has that affected you?
And again, if you guys sitaround, go why did we ever
(14:28):
get into this with having to dealwith this workforce issue? At the workforce
issue? And once again, it'snot just Wheeling, and it's not just
us, it's everywhere. I believetalked to a corporate guy that was in
yesterday from Columbus, Ohio, rana chain of restaurants, and it's not
us, it's everywhere. It's justit is the industry. It's a very
(14:48):
tough industry to be in. You'retrying to keep your food prices down so
that your patrons aren't upset when theysee the bill. And if you keep
the food prices down, you canonly pay your staff so much. You
know, we're working a lot ofthem like the part time operation, which
is new to me. I wasalways a full time guy. All my
employees were always full time. Buta lot of the restaurant industry likes the
(15:09):
part time stuff. So we've gotto fill two floor staff, two cooks
and a dishwasher. That's five people. We've got fifteen on them, so
they're always rotating, you know.You know, so they've got two days
off and they're rotating the three daysoff and they seem to like that.
But the industry is is so toughbecause the employees are always looking like everybody
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else on the planet, to makea little bit more money, So another
dollar that they hear someplace else,and they could be gone on Wednesday,
even though they worked on Tuesdays.It's a very transitional employee base. We're
very fortunate in the fact that we'vegot some really good employees right now.
We're trying to make it as funas we can. We pay them some
vacation, we pay them for someholidays off. You know, they're good
(15:56):
people and they're trying to make aliving like everybody else. So you know,
you care of your employees and havea little bit of fun at work.
Hopefully they stick around and hopefully youcan get a little bit of live
entertainment once in a while. Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah, And
it's not like you can put youknow, a huge orchestra in there.
It's but I like the way you'veset up the corner area there. It
sits out to the windows and peoplecan see what's going on. Yeah,
(16:18):
that was That was kind of theoriginal design that my brother and I had.
We wanted to do that so thatas folks are stuck at a traffic
light on Main Street, they canturn their head and see a live band
in the window of a restaurant indowntown Winning. We just think that's really
cool. And when we had wewere very fortunate. On our opening day.
We were closed from Memorial Day untilNovember. First week in November.
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Found some things that we weren't expecting. It took a little longer than we
thought it was going to. Butthe good news is when we opened back
up, we were able to getRoger Hoard and his friends John buck Olam
and It's Pack, Dan Jones,Doctor Jones, and they they just lit
the place up. Was really great. And I told Roger that night that
we were open. I said,Roger, I'm you're getting a lot of
known variety tonight. He says,yeah, it's a nice crowded so no,
(17:03):
no outside check this out. Andhe turned around and looked and there
were cars stopped at the traffic lightwith their windows down and their cell phones
out. Yeah, look taking picturesof the band playing in the window,
which we think is really cool.It's just great advertisement. It tells people
that Wheeling's a little bit alive.And I know that Dan down at Waterfront
Hall is doing the same thing.He's got bands down there, which is
really cool. We could use aboutfive more if anybody out there would like
(17:25):
to start this into this venture.Absolutely, we're the Marrier. We're all
for the chamber and then coming rightoff the bridge and you guys, I
mean the Interstay Bridge and there's theBridge Tavern on the left of the light.
It's a great setup there. We'retalking with Mike Carl from Three Sons
LLC real Estate and the Pension doingbusiness as the Bridge Tavern and grill.
Doug snuck out on us today outof town couldn't be on the interview.
We'll get him one of these days. But I want to take a little
(17:48):
turn and into more of like aninfluence of people in your life leadership style.
As you've gone through from h Newmanto here, what kind of advice
do you have for young entrepreneurs orrestaurant folks, or tell us even a
little bit about you know, fromfamily to schooling business mentors. How has
that shaped what you and Doug dothere. Yeah. So I've always had
(18:11):
a bit of a wild hair totry and do something on my own.
Worked at Achi Newman Company until themid nineties, left Ach Newman Company,
started my own business with the helpof my father. He was retiring at
the time and he's been in theconstruction industry for thirty years, so he
was able to help me out alittle bit. Ran that for about three
to four years, almost five yearsin my basement at home. Wow.
(18:34):
And then Don Wagenheim, who wasthe owner of Newman Company at the time.
I've always been involved in the whateverindustry I'm in, I'm trying to
sit on whatever boards are particularly investedin that particular industry. Yeah. So
I was happened to be on theboard at the High Valley Construction Plurist Council
as Don Wagenheim was, and oneChristmas party we had, he asked me
(18:56):
if you had to come back towork as a construction manager for him,
and he was looking at retiring inthe next three to five years, and
well, let me see, letme talk to my wife, let me
talk to my family, let metalk to my employees, let me talk
to my foremans. And see whatthey all think because they're all invested in
this project as I am. Andwe decided, yeah, that was going
to be a good deal for me. Let's let's do that. So you
(19:18):
know, down was a big influencefor me. He didn't recently just passed
away about a month ago. Yousee him at church and all kinds of
other places throughout the decades. Yeah. He and then my brother left the
insurance business. He started an insurancebusiness in Wheeling, left that he was
working for mcdonnough Caperton, left them, started his own little insurance business and
(19:40):
Wheeling left that and bought into theSchlatski's Deli franchise and had a deli franchise
in Pittsburgh. That's just a greatname for a deli. Yeah. Yeah,
they've made great sandwiches. I rememberwe started his first store. Then
he opened one in Dayton, openone in Cincinnati. Wow. And I
could see that, you know,the entrepreneur thing. It looks like the
(20:00):
way to go. That's yeah,yeah, be your own boss, do
your own thing, that sort ofthing. So yeah, I was certainly
influenced by my older brother, bymy father, the employers that I had,
Yeah, and had a lot offriends in the industry that had started
their own businesses, you know,guys like Tommy Knighted Herb and guys like
John Wright and American Plate Glass andyou. So I got to meet all
(20:21):
these other guys that were doing it. So I think every one of them
had a little bit of influence onme. Well, it's interesting too when
you think about the restaurant business andentrepreneurship and ownership. A lot of people
are you know, they're just ownersand they have other people that run or
manage or whatever. You guys arehands on every day every day. Yeah,
it's really neat to see when Icome in, like, there they
are again. I mean, theseguys are here all the time. Plus
then you know with dealing with leasersor renters or whatever you have up there
(20:47):
and the business that's developing and comingin on the second floor. If I
remember right, that's correct. Youguys are just in it every day every
day. Yeah, And we're init so that we don't lose track of
what's going on. You certainly wantto be involved, and a lot of
it is we're in it because wejust like it. You know, I
like talking to people. I likethe club I met so many nice people,
(21:07):
like meeting the train. We hada couple from Oregon stopped in yesterday.
He moved to Columbus. He isnow heading to Pittsburgh. He's a
tech guy and he's going to bein Pittsburgh for a week and he's going
back to Cleveland. He's going backto Columbus and he and his wife are
from Oregon. Lovely people. Whenthey sat there and had conversation, he
said, the fact that we're inColumbus, we want to come back to
(21:30):
Wheeling. Wheeling is a really cooltown. First time we've been in here,
and we like to brag about thetown. We'd like to tell everybody
about the festivals that we have.Oh my gosh, I speak about all
the other restaurants that are around.You want to go to Ellen Jacks,
You want to go to the Vagabond, Stop down at Mugshots for a cup
of coffee. Grant's a great guy. You know, you stop at Waterfront
Hall, so you know, youwant to talk up the town as much
(21:51):
as you can so people feel thatthey're they're they're noticed, and they want
to come back. Well with whatyou all do in those venues, You've
got Ogleby Institute constantly having music andentertainment. You got Ogleby and all the
things that they do. The listis on and on and on and on,
and people say, hi, Ilook at wheeling weekends. I'm like,
I can't get everything in. That'scorrect. Yeah, yeah, And
if you get worn out by Sunday, it's like I need Monday off.
(22:12):
We like advertising, we do.We just love advertising the town. We
want people to come back. Youknow, it's a really cool town,
it really is. And you know, we've got people coming in now,
like Jeff Jackson at West BANKO andhis wife Ronner and a coming in from
They had some time in Chattanooga andthey looked at this place and go,
you're not very far behind them.This can be the next Chattanooga, I
think. So I think we canbe better. You know, again,
(22:32):
we're not going to be Nashville.Nashville is Nashville, but we can be
better than we are. So that'skind of our hope, just to improve,
you know. And then there's there'sfolks that have moved here from Oregon.
A good friend of mine now thatwe golfed together. He's in the
oil and gas industry. He's aninspector, and he moved here from Oregon
and he bought a house. Heloves it. Yeah, we our neighbors
said they researched everywhere, and Wheelingare everywhere around the country, and found
(22:56):
that Wheeling was the place who wantedto be. So they said they'd come
here for a year, rent andlive for a year and see and they
loved it, and they bought ahouse two doors down from us, and
they've been there for two or threeyears. And it's like, how do
people just decide on Wheeling? Yeah, isn't that great? Yeah? I
love those conversations. How in theworld did you make it to Wheeling?
And then it just starts a forme, it's been women. I've married
(23:17):
two Wheeling women. I've married uptwice, and I've been here thirty years
now. So I did a lotof work in Pittsburgh, but I'm glad
now to be just totally invested herein Wheeling and trying to help, like
you, trying to help bring morepeople in to see what a great area.
We've got a great place to raisea family, great churches, We've
got just so many things to do. And the Wheeling Symphony just blows me
away. They are incredible. Didyou make it to the Harry Potter Show?
(23:38):
Did not get that one, butI made it to about three of
them the last year. Unbelievable thatthe talent is just amazing to me.
That a small town like Wheeling hassuch a terrific symphony orchestra. They are
just incredible. I took my granddaughterand it was wonderful. Oh yeah,
good stuff. One of the questionsI love to ask people, and you
can frame it however you like.But over those times, I'm sure there's
(24:00):
some tough lessons, lots of toughlesson that you've learned that you know.
It's like, I'd love to tellthis one because if someone can avoid this
or just how it's even shaped you. Yeah. So in the construction industry,
I was as a foreman and asas a partner in ownership. You
never ask anybody to do anything youwouldn't do yourself. That's a good life
(24:22):
lesson. Never put any and younever put anybody in harmful situations. Ever,
if you're not willing to do that, don't have somebody else to do
it. Stay involved with your employeesbecause I've definitely come to the realization that
I'm not really a boss. Alot of the times I'm overhead, so
someone else is paying my salary.So take care of those people that are
paying your salary. Be a partnerin the business. And again, sure
(24:47):
I own the place, but I'llchange the oil with the cook who's changing
oil because he needs help. Imean, you know, be a partner
in the business. Let them knowyou're vested. I think you get better
employees that way, you get betterbuy in that way. And when you're
when you're doing work and when you'reyou're doing the daily tasks, don't do
more than you're capable of. Don'tpromise more than your don't take on any
(25:11):
more work than you think you canpossibly handle. I need to hear you.
I'm gonna just sit here and playthis over and over because I have
I'm notorious for trying to do toomuch, and you don't. In the
UH and I've taught a couple ofclasses at the apprenticeship Paul and things like
that, and everybody, because you'rewilling to start the business, you're probably
(25:32):
an exception. So don't bid theexception. Bid the average. You know,
people, don't people Everybody that youhire isn't like you, you're gonna
have people that are slower than you, you're gonna have people that are faster
than you, and you need themall. You need the mix, you
need everybody ones. You need theaverage ones. So bid the average.
You know, in our restaurant now, we try and give everyone the calls
(25:52):
it heads up. You don't say, oh, yeah, come on in,
knowing you're gonna be three deep atthe bar. Don't do that.
Say look, we're very crowded.The restaurant has booked. If you'd like
to come in, that'd be fine, but you know, don't promise people
something you can't deliver on. Yeah, And it was funn because as we
were talking about we're figuring out howmany people could we actually put in your
face it and it I knew ithad the ability to take off, but
(26:14):
it did what it always does,that last minute. It's like whosh,
guy. Yeah, I'm like,Doug, I mean, we're gonna cut
it off at a hundred. Yeah. It's the fact that we were crazy,
you know, but it was good. We have we can occupy the
entire first floor. Perhaps we don'tjust have the restaurant so you can mingle
to the events base. In thelobby, through the hallways in the bar.
Yeah, and it worked out reallywell. And if people aren't familiar
with that back room, how dothey get ahold of you to maybe come
(26:36):
take a look at it for Justcall the tavern nineteen hundred. You call
the tavern and we've got a schedulebook that's right there in the drawer.
And again we have a catering menuthat you can if you have less than
fifteen people. And again we're asmall tavern. We have a fairly small
kitchen, bigger than it was forbetter but makes a mean meatball. Hell
(26:56):
that kids can make the mean meatball. We have the Pusta foods for jule
today. Really, oh my gosh. But on the on the catering side,
you know, we understand that wecan't get twenty people back there plus
the restaurant in the bar and stillorder food that's going to come out timely
and hot. Yeah, so onceyou get over the fifteen person, you
(27:18):
can't order off the menu anymore.We have a catering menu. We can
pre prepare that, we can putthem in warmers, we can put them
in shaping dishes and set up acounter of food for you if you've got
forty five fifty people, because ifyou have forty five people, and we've
had several parties down there thirty fiveto forty five people, there's no way
you can accommodate them properly and therestaurant itself, so we skipped to a
catering menu and you took great careof us and we truly appreciate it.
(27:42):
Our guest has been Mike carl todayfrom the Three Sons LLC real Estate Group
and the pension doing business as theBridge Tavern and Grill, and that is
you and your wife, Alisha,I think you said, and Doug and
Sumner. So those for you fourare kind of the Bridge Tavern are and
we take turns. And the greatthing about having four of us there and
(28:03):
living there and we all live there. Yeah, I don't have to be
there every day. You know,my brother will do a shift, my
wife will do a shift. She'scovering my shift right now, doctor Charleston,
So you know, everyone's there's alwayssomeone there to help that has authority
to run the show, which isreally helpful. So we're we're not balling
chain to the place. Very good, Mike, Thank you so much for
(28:26):
being our guest. Thank you.I appreciate you asking me to come over
and we do this because we reallylove Wheeling. I do. I love
this town. I think I've beenso blessed at this town. I'm glad
to get a little back and Ilove helping to tell the stories. And
the first time I met you andtalked to you, I've got the back
of my mind. And listen tothat voice. He's going to be great
on CEOs You Should Know. Gethim on the podcast. Thanks again,
(28:47):
Mike, appreciate you, Mike,thank you, thank you for listening to
CEOs you should Know Again. I'myour host, Mike Howard from the Wheeling
Area Chamber of Commerce, sponsored byour friends from West Bank, and we'll
see you next time on CEOs YouShould Know
Well, welcome to CEOs you shouldknow. I am your host, Mike
Howard, chief operating officer at theWheeling Area Chamber of Commerce and glad to
be a host of this program.Partnered with iHeart Radio Wheeling for CEOs you
should Know, and sponsored by ourgood friends at West Banco. We love
our friends at West Banco. Thankyou very much for sponsoring CEOs you should
(00:42):
know. Well, we couldn't fiteverybody in the studio today for our guests,
so we got one and that ismister Mike Carl from the Bridge Tavern
and Grille, but other businesses aswell, and we're going to talk all
about that with Mike. Mike.Welcome to CEOs you should know. Thanks
Mike, I appreciate you inviting meover. We are on the heels of
a very successful, I think businessafter Hours it was wonderful and what a
great turnout. Yeah, you guysreally brought them in. We had a
(01:03):
lot of fun. Well I'd liketo take credit, but I'll tell you
what. People wanted to see whatyou did there, and some of them
had and they came back and otherswere like, oh yeah, I got
to guess a lot of curiosity gorgeousrenovation. I think it's fabulous and if
my wife likes it, it's reallygood. And she did. Oh,
I appreciate that. So that wasjust a few weeks back that we did
that to kick off the year.Now we're talking maybe we should just bridge
(01:25):
to the new year every year atthe bridge like it? Yep, I
think that would be appropriate. That'sa great lead into the new year.
Well, and the bridge just isn'teverything that you do. But before we
talk about some of the others,I do want to jump into what where
did the idea for this renovation startand how it was quite a process,
wasn't it. It was an extremelydetailed process. I think we got in
(01:47):
a bit over our heads, asI typically do, and I cannot relate
to that my visions in my head. But you know, we purchased the
building in twenty sixteen, my brotherand I, actually my two brothers and
I purchased the building. My olderbrother bowed out because he has his own
business in Pittsburgh and didn't want toget involved in another development business in Wheeling
(02:07):
because he lives in Pittsburgh. Sowe bought my brother out and it was
just my brother and I owning abuilding that was already occupied, so it
was fairly convenient for us. Ihad another job as a mechanical contractor,
and my brother had another job inAtlanta as a administrator for Fulton County,
and we bought the building but hadtenants so we could take our time because
(02:30):
we had rent pairs and the rentpairs were able to cover our mortgage,
so we were okay for a while. Well there you go. Yeah,
and we we started out in sixteenjust trying to cure the envelope, so
to speak. Put a roof onthe windows, needed board it up.
We're getting water in things like that, so we just kind of did that
baby steps into it. Sure,but you know, once you walk through
(02:53):
the building, you realize that thisthing needed some TLC. And this was
seventeen thirteen. Yeah, we boughtthe building. The former proprietor of the
Bridge Restaurant, Bridge Tavern and Grillwas George Dormous. We bought the building
off of George and he continued torun the tavern till twenty nineteen when he
(03:13):
decided it was time to spend someluxury time with Linda, his wife,
So that's when we took over thebusiness, but knowing that right before COVID,
no challenge there. Yeah, itwas really convenient. We took over
the business in nineteen and June ofnineteen and by March of twenty we were
shut down for the pandemic. Soit didn't work out the way we hoped,
(03:35):
but you know, it kind ofdrove us to start the remodel.
We were down anyway, we wereclosed. We knew it had to be
done because there's no grandfathering with newowners, so the city expects certain code
things to be done to old buildings. Yeah, stuff people don't remember think
about every day. So we couldn'tleave it the way it was. It
was impossible to do that anyway.We had to bring it up to code.
(03:59):
And we decided that point that thatwas going to be our home,
so let's let's start renovating. Andthat's kind of how we could let into
it. You know, I thinka lot of people and maybe in most
towns, when you drive around yousee a restaurant, it's attached to something.
You don't really know what else isin there, or who's running it
or how's it going, but youhave the whole establishment there. Correct,
that's correct, Yeah, we've gotwe've got some business offices and a gym
(04:20):
on two, and we've got livingspace on three and four. I live
on three, and then we've gotthe tavern in the front of the building.
We've got restrooms and a game roomin the center of the building,
and we have an event space thatseats about forty five to fifty in the
lower end. Used to be winningcoinn and hobby. Yeah, I've been
to a couple events. We hadour event that flowed in and out of
(04:42):
there with music in the tavern itself. It's a great it's a great way
to do it, do an eventdoing outing. All right, So learned
a lot the night we were there. But let's talk about the history of
that building. If people don't know, and I really didn't have a clue,
Well, it was before it iswhat it is, So you know,
folks like Steve Navatni probably have donea lot more research than I have.
But what I do know about thebuilding from the previous owner was it
(05:05):
was it was originally occupied the Bridgetavern area itself, that particular small footprint
that is the restaurant was originally occupiedby the Wheeling Transit Authority and they That's
why they called it the waiting roombecause you would go in there. They
owned all the street cars in downtownWheeling, and you would go in and
wait for the street car, soldconfectioneries and things like that. It was
(05:27):
originally just because of the construction thatwe did. It was originally a two
story building. Because when we torethe ceiling out on the second floor,
we found roofing paper, so thethird floor was added. I believe E.
B. Potts was the developer thatpurchased the building, and I don't
know who he actually purchased it fromthe Good family or I'm not sure who
actually owned it, but very regardless, the EB. Pots bought that Wheeling
(05:50):
Traction Company continued to operate their businessout of the corner of the building,
and he added the hotel. Youcan and you can see if you if
you stand outside and you look atthe brick, you can see the different
variations of brick where the construction startedand stopped. Okay, sometime in the
early nineteen twenties they added the fourthfloor. He had three floors because we
(06:11):
found roofing paper on the third flooras well. Now, what's interesting,
we're sitting here in the iHeart Studiosas part of the Capitol Music Hall building.
This was supposed to be. Therewas supposed to be a big hotel
up here, and who knows whathappened back then in the thirties with one
across the street and this one tryingto come in. I'm sure somebody knows
that story. Yeah, the originalWheeling hotel was where the Downtowner that's since
(06:31):
been mothballed sits now, and thenthe Bridge Tavern and Grill was originally in
that building. When they tore thatbuilding down in the early sixties, they
tore that building down to put thedowntowner in the Bridge Tavern Grill moved across
the street to where we are now, and that would have been mister Dormous
(06:53):
George's dad Pete. Yeah, thisis making me think they're I'm not the
guy who did, but there probablyought to be just a Wheeling historical podcast.
All these buildings and all these stories. There's so much here, and
I had the same curiosity as youdo when I drive by some of these
buildings. I wonder what's upstairs.I mean, I see what's downstairs,
but I wonder what's upstairs? Yeah, is it living? Is it something?
Is it nothing? Open space?Who knows? All right, well,
(07:14):
let's talk a little bit about thefamily, how you got into the
business, what would make you fromand you can tell us about your past
experience to want to run the BridgeTavern restaurant a bit of insanity. I
think. My brother and I havebeen traveling around for years to Memphis,
Austin, Nashville, Ashville, NorthCarolina. We just love the live music
(07:34):
stuff. We always thought that wasreally cool. And as we're sitting in
these in these event spaces and theseother towns, we get to after a
couple of cocktails, we get totalking about, Man, how cool would
this be if we could have somethinglike that in downtown Wheeling. You know,
we can. It's not it's nota destination town, but we can
certainly make it better. I thinkit'd just be awesome to have some nightlife
(07:55):
in downtown Wheeling. Talked about itfor years, and through some good fortune,
we ended up being able to purchasethis building. And I called my
brother and I said, I'm sittinghere with George Dormous. He's looking at
retiring in the next three to fouryears. He wants to sell the building.
What do you think. Doug saidsure, let's do it. So
we were all blame it on Doug. Right. We bought the building and
(08:16):
we'd looked at several buildings, lookedat the marsh Wheeling building. We looked
at the flat iron building that misterDuffin did. That's a beautiful building.
By the way, this one happenedto fit our needs. As far as
the music little venue. It's onthe corner people can see. We saw
the glass outside where you could seethe bands. We thought this is going
to be really neat. So wejust said, you know, I'm going
(08:37):
to be retiring here in another fiveor eight years. Let's do something.
So we just decided to jump intothe the music venue business, not understanding
at all the restaurant business, whichis quite difficult. All you restaurant tours
out there. Then what you figuredthat out? Huht is off to you
folks, Yeah, oh, nodoubt, no doubt. So you kind
(08:58):
of have a couple of business togo. You have the real estate and
then you have the the bridge tavernsign and explain those two to us how
they layed. If people were lookingfor you online, I guess yeah.
So we started a business back inthe early two thousands called Three Sons LLC.
And it was my dad had threeboys, and so it was myself,
(09:18):
my brothers and we purchased my folkshome. Dad was pretty smart.
He didn't want he didn't want itto go to a retirement home if he
got sick, so he sold itto his boys twenty years before he passed
away. Ye, so we boughtthe built. We bought the house off
my parents and in the house nextto them became available when the gentleman that
(09:41):
lived there passed away, and webought that house. We could control who
lives next to Mom and Dad.So we bought these through a small little
LLC that we set up my brothersand I. So we ended up buying
the bridge tavern through the same LLC. Three Sons. That's how it happened.
And then you know, as Imentioned when I called you, so
it pops up the pension doing business. As I'm always interested in, where
(10:01):
did these names come from? Well, that was our retirement. That's what
we called it, the pension.So the bar we were always going to
call the bar the pension, mybrother and I, so the three Sons
owned the building. Again, weseparated from my older brother who had his
own business going on in Pittsburgh,and when George decided he was time for
him to retire, we took overthe Bridge Tavern Grill as the Pension Incorporating
(10:24):
doing business as the Bridge Tavern Grill. So it's two separate endities. One
is an in corporation, the otherones in LLC. We had to form
it. It's really weird the waythe state works. But you can't transfer
gaming licenses, so he had gamingmachines in there. In order to keep
the gaming machine, we had tocreate our own in corporation or corporate entity.
(10:46):
Because George was a corporate entity.We merged the businesses together and then
we bought George out. That's howwe ended up keeping the gaming license.
Very interesting, all right, Sowe've got three sons LLC, the pension
doing business has the Bridge Tavern andGrill. Okay, So this is a
fun question that just popped in myhead because I'm an old Hyatt guy who
had Hyatt Hotels, had just customerservice ingrained in my brain. Tell me
(11:09):
from prior to owning and then owningand running, where was your mentality as
far as how important is customer serviceand now that you've run the bridge for
a few years, where is itnow? So I was had the great
fortune to work at H. NewmanCompany. Yeah, as a mechanical contractor.
And you're pretty much in the customerservice business. No matter what business
(11:33):
you're in, people call, peoplecomplain. You want to do the right
thing. You've got to serve whatthey're paying for. So we've been in
the customer service business for a goodwhile. We weren't. I was never
a widget guy. I didn't workon a factory line. I didn't have
an office cubicle as an engineer,and didn't do any of that stuff.
We were always I was always engagedwith the community, and whether that community
(11:54):
was an industrial processing plant, whetherit was Missus Smith's furnace. You've always
been engaged with the community anyway.We've been in the customer service business for
a while, just not the restaurantcustomer service business, which is completely unique
any other business out there. Soare you a wheeling guy? Did you
grow up here? Your brother's yourdad or have you moved around? What's
(12:15):
kind of been that wheeling guy allmy life? I was the only one
that never left. I have threeother sils you're a rare bird. Oh
yeah. I have a sister andtwo brothers and they all flew away.
We all remained very very close.My brother and my sister lived in Atlanta.
My older brother moved to Pittsburgh wherehe started several business He had a
Shlatsky's Deli, and then he hadRotelli's Restaurant and now he's got three daughters.
(12:39):
Wine and beverage. Oh wow.Yeah, so he's he's kind of
like me, gets gets a littlebit of ants, he wants to do
something else. Yeah. So myyounger brother, Doug has since come back
to participate in this because he retiredfrom the where'd he come from? Come
back from Atlanta? He was inwas Alana for twenty seven years. Oh
(13:00):
my gosh, that's a change.Yeah, retired as a administrator for Fulton
County Services. Okay, decided tocome back to Wheeling. That's awesome.
Well, we love having people comeback, and what we're trying to do
is the chambers see if we caneven keep them from leaving in the first
place. Absolutely, maybe we'll doa poster about you ever left. So
education wise, which maybe I'm datinghere, I'm assuming is a Wheeling Park
(13:20):
High School or was it maybe alittle before that. Yes, you are
correct in both. Okay, soyou were like one of the transition guys
two years at Wheeling High School,very cool. Went to Richie Junior High.
Okay, that's when they had juniorhigh middle schools, Richie Junior High.
They went to Wheeling High School fortwo years and we were the first
graduating class at Park in nineteen seventyseven. You're the alpha class. Yep,
(13:41):
we started. That is awesome.It was an absolute zoo that it
was three schools jammed together. Well, I have a daughter up there now
that loves that. Most of mykids went to Central, but she's got
that artsy and she loves the culinaryprogram. I mean, she is so
in. They do so many goodthings up there, and they've got their
competitions coming ups. Yeah. Itis just fabulous to see. So hopefully
what we're doing is, you know, creating some job people for folks like
(14:07):
you. We've hired a couple fromNorthern Community College Culinary Arts. Yeah.
In fact, one of our chefsthat's over there now is going back to
culinary Arts school. He'd liked tohave his own business one. Yeah.
Yeah, Well that's awesome. Sowe've delved into that a little bit.
We'll talk to us about the wholeemployee crunch. How has that affected you?
And again, if you guys sitaround, go why did we ever
(14:28):
get into this with having to dealwith this workforce issue? At the workforce
issue? And once again, it'snot just Wheeling, and it's not just
us, it's everywhere. I believetalked to a corporate guy that was in
yesterday from Columbus, Ohio, rana chain of restaurants, and it's not
us, it's everywhere. It's justit is the industry. It's a very
(14:48):
tough industry to be in. You'retrying to keep your food prices down so
that your patrons aren't upset when theysee the bill. And if you keep
the food prices down, you canonly pay your staff so much. You
know, we're working a lot ofthem like the part time operation, which
is new to me. I wasalways a full time guy. All my
employees were always full time. Buta lot of the restaurant industry likes the
(15:09):
part time stuff. So we've gotto fill two floor staff, two cooks
and a dishwasher. That's five people. We've got fifteen on them, so
they're always rotating, you know.You know, so they've got two days
off and they're rotating the three daysoff and they seem to like that.
But the industry is is so toughbecause the employees are always looking like everybody
(15:35):
else on the planet, to makea little bit more money, So another
dollar that they hear someplace else,and they could be gone on Wednesday,
even though they worked on Tuesdays.It's a very transitional employee base. We're
very fortunate in the fact that we'vegot some really good employees right now.
We're trying to make it as funas we can. We pay them some
vacation, we pay them for someholidays off. You know, they're good
(15:56):
people and they're trying to make aliving like everybody else. So you know,
you care of your employees and havea little bit of fun at work.
Hopefully they stick around and hopefully youcan get a little bit of live
entertainment once in a while. Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah, And
it's not like you can put youknow, a huge orchestra in there.
It's but I like the way you'veset up the corner area there. It
sits out to the windows and peoplecan see what's going on. Yeah,
(16:18):
that was That was kind of theoriginal design that my brother and I had.
We wanted to do that so thatas folks are stuck at a traffic
light on Main Street, they canturn their head and see a live band
in the window of a restaurant indowntown Winning. We just think that's really
cool. And when we had wewere very fortunate. On our opening day.
We were closed from Memorial Day untilNovember. First week in November.
(16:40):
Found some things that we weren't expecting. It took a little longer than we
thought it was going to. Butthe good news is when we opened back
up, we were able to getRoger Hoard and his friends John buck Olam
and It's Pack, Dan Jones,Doctor Jones, and they they just lit
the place up. Was really great. And I told Roger that night that
we were open. I said,Roger, I'm you're getting a lot of
known variety tonight. He says,yeah, it's a nice crowded so no,
(17:03):
no outside check this out. Andhe turned around and looked and there
were cars stopped at the traffic lightwith their windows down and their cell phones
out. Yeah, look taking picturesof the band playing in the window,
which we think is really cool.It's just great advertisement. It tells people
that Wheeling's a little bit alive.And I know that Dan down at Waterfront
Hall is doing the same thing.He's got bands down there, which is
really cool. We could use aboutfive more if anybody out there would like
(17:25):
to start this into this venture.Absolutely, we're the Marrier. We're all
for the chamber and then coming rightoff the bridge and you guys, I
mean the Interstay Bridge and there's theBridge Tavern on the left of the light.
It's a great setup there. We'retalking with Mike Carl from Three Sons
LLC real Estate and the Pension doingbusiness as the Bridge Tavern and grill.
Doug snuck out on us today outof town couldn't be on the interview.
We'll get him one of these days. But I want to take a little
(17:48):
turn and into more of like aninfluence of people in your life leadership style.
As you've gone through from h Newmanto here, what kind of advice
do you have for young entrepreneurs orrestaurant folks, or tell us even a
little bit about you know, fromfamily to schooling business mentors. How has
that shaped what you and Doug dothere. Yeah. So I've always had
(18:11):
a bit of a wild hair totry and do something on my own.
Worked at Achi Newman Company until themid nineties, left Ach Newman Company,
started my own business with the helpof my father. He was retiring at
the time and he's been in theconstruction industry for thirty years, so he
was able to help me out alittle bit. Ran that for about three
to four years, almost five yearsin my basement at home. Wow.
(18:34):
And then Don Wagenheim, who wasthe owner of Newman Company at the time.
I've always been involved in the whateverindustry I'm in, I'm trying to
sit on whatever boards are particularly investedin that particular industry. Yeah. So
I was happened to be on theboard at the High Valley Construction Plurist Council
as Don Wagenheim was, and oneChristmas party we had, he asked me
(18:56):
if you had to come back towork as a construction manager for him,
and he was looking at retiring inthe next three to five years, and
well, let me see, letme talk to my wife, let me
talk to my family, let metalk to my employees, let me talk
to my foremans. And see whatthey all think because they're all invested in
this project as I am. Andwe decided, yeah, that was going
to be a good deal for me. Let's let's do that. So you
(19:18):
know, down was a big influencefor me. He didn't recently just passed
away about a month ago. Yousee him at church and all kinds of
other places throughout the decades. Yeah. He and then my brother left the
insurance business. He started an insurancebusiness in Wheeling, left that he was
working for mcdonnough Caperton, left them, started his own little insurance business and
(19:40):
Wheeling left that and bought into theSchlatski's Deli franchise and had a deli franchise
in Pittsburgh. That's just a greatname for a deli. Yeah. Yeah,
they've made great sandwiches. I rememberwe started his first store. Then
he opened one in Dayton, openone in Cincinnati. Wow. And I
could see that, you know,the entrepreneur thing. It looks like the
(20:00):
way to go. That's yeah,yeah, be your own boss, do
your own thing, that sort ofthing. So yeah, I was certainly
influenced by my older brother, bymy father, the employers that I had,
Yeah, and had a lot offriends in the industry that had started
their own businesses, you know,guys like Tommy Knighted Herb and guys like
John Wright and American Plate Glass andyou. So I got to meet all
(20:21):
these other guys that were doing it. So I think every one of them
had a little bit of influence onme. Well, it's interesting too when
you think about the restaurant business andentrepreneurship and ownership. A lot of people
are you know, they're just ownersand they have other people that run or
manage or whatever. You guys arehands on every day every day. Yeah,
it's really neat to see when Icome in, like, there they
are again. I mean, theseguys are here all the time. Plus
then you know with dealing with leasersor renters or whatever you have up there
(20:47):
and the business that's developing and comingin on the second floor. If I
remember right, that's correct. Youguys are just in it every day every
day. Yeah, And we're init so that we don't lose track of
what's going on. You certainly wantto be involved, and a lot of
it is we're in it because wejust like it. You know, I
like talking to people. I likethe club I met so many nice people,
(21:07):
like meeting the train. We hada couple from Oregon stopped in yesterday.
He moved to Columbus. He isnow heading to Pittsburgh. He's a
tech guy and he's going to bein Pittsburgh for a week and he's going
back to Cleveland. He's going backto Columbus and he and his wife are
from Oregon. Lovely people. Whenthey sat there and had conversation, he
said, the fact that we're inColumbus, we want to come back to
(21:30):
Wheeling. Wheeling is a really cooltown. First time we've been in here,
and we like to brag about thetown. We'd like to tell everybody
about the festivals that we have.Oh my gosh, I speak about all
the other restaurants that are around.You want to go to Ellen Jacks,
You want to go to the Vagabond, Stop down at Mugshots for a cup
of coffee. Grant's a great guy. You know, you stop at Waterfront
Hall, so you know, youwant to talk up the town as much
(21:51):
as you can so people feel thatthey're they're they're noticed, and they want
to come back. Well with whatyou all do in those venues, You've
got Ogleby Institute constantly having music andentertainment. You got Ogleby and all the
things that they do. The listis on and on and on and on,
and people say, hi, Ilook at wheeling weekends. I'm like,
I can't get everything in. That'scorrect. Yeah, yeah, And
if you get worn out by Sunday, it's like I need Monday off.
(22:12):
We like advertising, we do.We just love advertising the town. We
want people to come back. Youknow, it's a really cool town,
it really is. And you know, we've got people coming in now,
like Jeff Jackson at West BANKO andhis wife Ronner and a coming in from
They had some time in Chattanooga andthey looked at this place and go,
you're not very far behind them.This can be the next Chattanooga, I
think. So I think we canbe better. You know, again,
(22:32):
we're not going to be Nashville.Nashville is Nashville, but we can be
better than we are. So that'skind of our hope, just to improve,
you know. And then there's there'sfolks that have moved here from Oregon.
A good friend of mine now thatwe golfed together. He's in the
oil and gas industry. He's aninspector, and he moved here from Oregon
and he bought a house. Heloves it. Yeah, we our neighbors
said they researched everywhere, and Wheelingare everywhere around the country, and found
(22:56):
that Wheeling was the place who wantedto be. So they said they'd come
here for a year, rent andlive for a year and see and they
loved it, and they bought ahouse two doors down from us, and
they've been there for two or threeyears. And it's like, how do
people just decide on Wheeling? Yeah, isn't that great? Yeah? I
love those conversations. How in theworld did you make it to Wheeling?
And then it just starts a forme, it's been women. I've married
(23:17):
two Wheeling women. I've married uptwice, and I've been here thirty years
now. So I did a lotof work in Pittsburgh, but I'm glad
now to be just totally invested herein Wheeling and trying to help, like
you, trying to help bring morepeople in to see what a great area.
We've got a great place to raisea family, great churches, We've
got just so many things to do. And the Wheeling Symphony just blows me
away. They are incredible. Didyou make it to the Harry Potter Show?
(23:38):
Did not get that one, butI made it to about three of
them the last year. Unbelievable thatthe talent is just amazing to me.
That a small town like Wheeling hassuch a terrific symphony orchestra. They are
just incredible. I took my granddaughterand it was wonderful. Oh yeah,
good stuff. One of the questionsI love to ask people, and you
can frame it however you like.But over those times, I'm sure there's
(24:00):
some tough lessons, lots of toughlesson that you've learned that you know.
It's like, I'd love to tellthis one because if someone can avoid this
or just how it's even shaped you. Yeah. So in the construction industry,
I was as a foreman and asas a partner in ownership. You
never ask anybody to do anything youwouldn't do yourself. That's a good life
(24:22):
lesson. Never put any and younever put anybody in harmful situations. Ever,
if you're not willing to do that, don't have somebody else to do
it. Stay involved with your employeesbecause I've definitely come to the realization that
I'm not really a boss. Alot of the times I'm overhead, so
someone else is paying my salary.So take care of those people that are
paying your salary. Be a partnerin the business. And again, sure
(24:47):
I own the place, but I'llchange the oil with the cook who's changing
oil because he needs help. Imean, you know, be a partner
in the business. Let them knowyou're vested. I think you get better
employees that way, you get betterbuy in that way. And when you're
when you're doing work and when you'reyou're doing the daily tasks, don't do
more than you're capable of. Don'tpromise more than your don't take on any
(25:11):
more work than you think you canpossibly handle. I need to hear you.
I'm gonna just sit here and playthis over and over because I have
I'm notorious for trying to do toomuch, and you don't. In the
UH and I've taught a couple ofclasses at the apprenticeship Paul and things like
that, and everybody, because you'rewilling to start the business, you're probably
(25:32):
an exception. So don't bid theexception. Bid the average. You know,
people, don't people Everybody that youhire isn't like you, you're gonna
have people that are slower than you, you're gonna have people that are faster
than you, and you need themall. You need the mix, you
need everybody ones. You need theaverage ones. So bid the average.
You know, in our restaurant now, we try and give everyone the calls
(25:52):
it heads up. You don't say, oh, yeah, come on in,
knowing you're gonna be three deep atthe bar. Don't do that.
Say look, we're very crowded.The restaurant has booked. If you'd like
to come in, that'd be fine, but you know, don't promise people
something you can't deliver on. Yeah, And it was funn because as we
were talking about we're figuring out howmany people could we actually put in your
face it and it I knew ithad the ability to take off, but
(26:14):
it did what it always does,that last minute. It's like whosh,
guy. Yeah, I'm like,Doug, I mean, we're gonna cut
it off at a hundred. Yeah. It's the fact that we were crazy,
you know, but it was good. We have we can occupy the
entire first floor. Perhaps we don'tjust have the restaurant so you can mingle
to the events base. In thelobby, through the hallways in the bar.
Yeah, and it worked out reallywell. And if people aren't familiar
with that back room, how dothey get ahold of you to maybe come
(26:36):
take a look at it for Justcall the tavern nineteen hundred. You call
the tavern and we've got a schedulebook that's right there in the drawer.
And again we have a catering menuthat you can if you have less than
fifteen people. And again we're asmall tavern. We have a fairly small
kitchen, bigger than it was forbetter but makes a mean meatball. Hell
(26:56):
that kids can make the mean meatball. We have the Pusta foods for jule
today. Really, oh my gosh. But on the on the catering side,
you know, we understand that wecan't get twenty people back there plus
the restaurant in the bar and stillorder food that's going to come out timely
and hot. Yeah, so onceyou get over the fifteen person, you
(27:18):
can't order off the menu anymore.We have a catering menu. We can
pre prepare that, we can putthem in warmers, we can put them
in shaping dishes and set up acounter of food for you if you've got
forty five fifty people, because ifyou have forty five people, and we've
had several parties down there thirty fiveto forty five people, there's no way
you can accommodate them properly and therestaurant itself, so we skipped to a
catering menu and you took great careof us and we truly appreciate it.
(27:42):
Our guest has been Mike carl todayfrom the Three Sons LLC real Estate Group
and the pension doing business as theBridge Tavern and Grill, and that is
you and your wife, Alisha,I think you said, and Doug and
Sumner. So those for you fourare kind of the Bridge Tavern are and
we take turns. And the greatthing about having four of us there and
(28:03):
living there and we all live there. Yeah, I don't have to be
there every day. You know,my brother will do a shift, my
wife will do a shift. She'scovering my shift right now, doctor Charleston,
So you know, everyone's there's alwayssomeone there to help that has authority
to run the show, which isreally helpful. So we're we're not balling
chain to the place. Very good, Mike, Thank you so much for
(28:26):
being our guest. Thank you.I appreciate you asking me to come over
and we do this because we reallylove Wheeling. I do. I love
this town. I think I've beenso blessed at this town. I'm glad
to get a little back and Ilove helping to tell the stories. And
the first time I met you andtalked to you, I've got the back
of my mind. And listen tothat voice. He's going to be great
on CEOs You Should Know. Gethim on the podcast. Thanks again,
(28:47):
Mike, appreciate you, Mike,thank you, thank you for listening to
CEOs you should Know Again. I'myour host, Mike Howard from the Wheeling
Area Chamber of Commerce, sponsored byour friends from West Bank, and we'll
see you next time on CEOs YouShould Know
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