McHugh's: Name change brings new attitude
By Mike Mitchelson

Chris McHugh bought a bar and restaurant with a reputation. He realized quickly he needed to change it.

Buying an existing bar or restaurant with a developed reputation can be a good thing. Or not.

When Chris McHugh bought the four-year-old Spectator’s Grille & Bar in Savage last November, he knew there were some issues—namely the menu—but thought name recognition would be an advantage.

But McHugh realized in short order drastic changes were needed. “The food was laughable,” he said, “We tried to fix Spectator’s, but couldn’t. …The reputation for food was terrible.”

McHugh plotted a clean break with the Spectator’s name to “earn customer trust,” he said, beginning with improvements to the dining room itself and culminating in a name change and reopening in late February. The response was immediate.

Shortly after the name switch, “we’re noticing more families in here,” McHugh said.

Make no mistake, McHugh’s Grille & Bar is a sports bar, but McHugh is trying to attract a wider variety of client—flatscreen TVs hang in predictable sightlines, but aren’t intrusive to those interested in just dining. McHugh said cosmetic appearances were paramount—a new coat of paint and plants have helped create a “homey, warm feel,” he said. “We wanted to let people know it’s absolutely changed.”

The most important change, however, was the menu. Sure, there’s sports bar fare: burgers, sandwiches and onion rings for starters, but there’s been a considerable upgrade in quality—the onion rings used to be “oil rings,” said McHugh’s Chef Spencer Jensen. “It was standard, deep-fried bar food. Now we’re more gourmet.”

There are also a few more options available—77 items on the menu, to be exact. Burgers are hand-pattied, steaks are hand cut. “We could buy cheaper rib eye, but we’re willing to run higher food costs and roll the dice, betting that people will buy it,” McHugh said.

And so far, they have. Jensen said making the choice in-house as opposed to a vendor doing it for you is a key component to producing good food and keeps things interesting for the kitchen staff—they’re not just opening a bag and heating food. “It’s fun to put your signature on everything,” he said. “It’s fun to do what I want to do. I make things the way I like them, and almost always that’s the way the customers like it, too. Sometimes they want a little more of this or that, and we listen.”

There’s more to the new menu than steak, which includes comfort foods like roasted and chicken fried chicken, and a bevy of salads and sandwiches—and all the meats for those sandwiches are roasted in-house.

They run through about 150 pounds of beef per week, about 80 to 100 pounds of corned beef a week, and parted with 60 pounds of prime rib on the first Saturday after reopening as McHugh’s. They expanded the wine offerings, too—there used to be only two choices when it was Spectators—and added a martini list. “People love it, and we hear the compliments,” McHugh said.


Location, location, location

When McHugh walked in the door as the new owner months ago, he asked one of the staff to see the Direct TV NFL Sunday Ticket set up, which allows patrons to select particular games to watch, and was told by the employee that the bar didn’t have it. “It’s a sport’s bar and they don’t have the NFL games,” McHugh said, incredulously. “I asked what they did when people want to watch a game, and they would send them down the road to Buffalo Wild Wings. So I got to spend 3K my first day (getting the NFL service),” he said.

Despite those issues, McHugh said he wouldn’t change his mind if the chance were offered. He looked at several locations around the Twin Cities area, and this appeared to have the most potential. “I looked at three or four fixer-uppers, but this building was constructed in ’02, and (the previous owners) took very good care of it,” he said.

McHugh also liked his chances with the particular location in Savage—he’s in a valley of sorts, through which runs County Road 42/Egan Drive, and he’s the only restaurant in the immediate area. In that “valley” is a dense residential area packed with young families. “If I can win the residential area, I like my chances, and we can pull some of the 30,000 cars passing on 42, also.”

They’d like to become the “Cheers” of the neighborhood, and reach out to the community to attain that goal by participating in events with the local high school, community college and the city.

Specials are offered during the week, including prime rib and wing nights, and more events are planned, such as a Sunday brunch for football season and “Deal or No Deal” Mondays. They also have a patio which seats 75 people, which will be spruced up and taken advantage of in the warmer months.


Experience counts

McHugh said he is working toward buying the building in May, being in business for the next ten years before searching out a younger person who wants to be in the restaurant business. “That, or in six months you’ll go to Arby’s and I’ll be asking if you want fries with that,” he joked. “At 48, if I didn’t do it now, I wouldn’t do it. It was time to jump into the deep end of the pool, …and the bank was dumb enough to give me money.”

But seriously, now.

Given McHugh’s experience as former director of operations with Champps Americana, Tri City Restaurants and as a GM and area manager for Chi Chi’s in its heyday, an abrupt career shift to the fast food line is unlikely.

The 220-seat space is still small enough to closely monitor quality, and McHugh sees only good things happening. The restaurant was packed “right to the walls” during the week of heavy snowstorms in late February, Jensen added.

Jensen’s kitchen experience spans three decades; he’s worked in the catering business and owned his own restaurant. McHugh and Jensen met though “a friend of a friend of a friend,” the two joked.

“I wasn’t looking to get back into (the business), but I like doing start-ups,” Jensen said.

“Spencer is a great teacher on the line,” McHugh said. “His greatest virtue is patience—with me it’s the worst. So we really balance each other.” McHugh focuses on the front of the house operations, and his wife works the office. “With the front of the house staff, they get it,” he said. “It ain’t brain surgery, it’s hospitality.”

“Being independent is vital,” McHugh added. “It’s the versatility, not having to worry about being locked into a formula, and clearing nine levels of management to make a decision. It’s just me and Spencer, and there’s great trust.”

The key to keep people coming in the door is relatively simple, McHugh said. “Dean Vlahos at Champps said, if your food and service is better than the others, people will come back.”