There are major accolades to be given to the management of a pair of bar and grill establishments that are much alike in that they offer plenty of community-based activities, and serve a wide variety of clientele as each day cycles through.
At Dick’s in Hudson, Carol Raley and Rochelle LaBlanc are the principal new owners, having bought the business from the longtime proprietors in the Kremer family, and at Bo’s ‘N Mine in River Falls, longtime owner Cedric Ellingson has been named 2014 person of the year by the local Chamber of Commerce.
The two women at Dick’s have been fixtures there for years, starting as servers at this, the oldest continuously running tavern in the state. They say they won’t change much, maybe a dab of paint here and there, and Dick’s will continue to be a prime place for breakfast since the cooks also have been a long-running team, for lunch and later happy hour for local business-people, and then for dancing to a variety of music, whether it be from a deejay on weekends or a core group of ever-expanding favorite bands, even in the middle of the week.
One of the managers asked me, back in the day when I worked for the Hudson Star-Observer, why don’t you do a story on all the community events associated with Dick’s, rather than just the nightlife? Good question, I thought, even if no one is necessarily reinventing the wheel.
Besides holding benefits, some of the longtime annual events that have attracted a regular following to the bar and grill are the blackout parties held in the dark except for glow sticks, spring break parties complete with sand, British car club shows, the One Block Fun Run, Easter bunny and pumpkin carving seasonal events, cribbage tourneys and Hot Air Affair pre-party. Often a few Lucky Dog mascots, who aren’t dogs at all, participate as well as humans.
Just of late, events have been a sweetheart dart tournament for Valentine’s Day, a chili cookoff and Euchre tourney. And as always, hung from the ceiling have been lots of holiday-themed decorations. And of course, the amazing Jeff Loven has completed his 13th year of being the infamous one-man-band on Sunday nights, and Wednesdays in the summer have often featured bands — to the degree that my friend Tom figures it into his schedule if they are on or off, then decides whether to make the trip from the Cities midweek. For years, also, there has been breakfast for the boating crowd and accompanying Bloody Mary’s. All this to the point that bartenders in the area consider Dick’s the place where you most want to work. But as far as the extra-curricular end, I still would like to someday hit the YMCA basketball court with Carol, in what’s been a longtime consideration, as in her native Luck the tall blonde was a quite prolific basketball scorer and rebounder.
But sometimes, what is old does indeed become new.
When I first moved to Hudson, the far northwest corner featured a pay telephone on which you could call out — before the phone company started taking those out of service. It had, very humorously, a painting of Superman placing the call.
After a while, that gave way to space for a popcorn machine, but I still always thought that the presence of Superman was a nice touch.
So, a couple of weeks ago, the whole thing was dismantled again, this time with the eventual placement of decorative paneling that cordoned off a back room. Suddenly one night, there was all this remodeling going on, and you could see for the first time a temporarily revealed back-room area that on one end had small drawers of nuts and bolts that reminded me of my garage. Later, for a short period of time, there was the whirring of a drill, which temporarily made it hard to converse about how nice the new area was shaping up.
But still later, the new arrangement was complete, with the popcorn machine moved closer to the rest of the room and an office area finalized with dedicated space for various business affairs. But still, no sign of a resurrected Superman.
Perhaps the best, closest thing to Superman at Bo’s has been Joe Montana, the famous quarterback who when with the Kansas City Chiefs and their summer practices in River Falls was known to stop by and tip a couple. And, it’s reported, he would even talk to the average Joe’s at the bar, as long as it was everyday guy stuff and not football. Much like Lynyrd Skynyrd used to sing, “don’t ask me about my business, and I won’t send you away. If you want to talk about fishing, I guess that would be OK.”
But the owner of Bo’s can’t quite escape the local notoriety — as not only Montana comes in, but everyone from business and local political leaders to college students — even if Ellingson’s not quite hall of fame bound.
This is a short list of what Ellingson’s done in and for the community of River Falls:
— He’s on the regional board for Big Brothers/Big Sisters;
— Is involved in the River Falls Baseball Council with building the First National Bank of River Falls Field;
— Has worked with Our Neighbors Place that benefits homeless people;
— Is involved with many chamber events, including those on St. Patrick’s Day, and with RiverDazzle and the Bacon Bash;
— Works with many UW-River Falls events, including athletics and Bowls of Hope;
— Through his business, hosts a dinner for an area suicide awareness group.
Ellingson will point out that like Dick’s, having such ties brings people into his establishment, making it a win-win situation.
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