The Barstool Fund - Jack's Spot Tavern
Up next: Jack's Spot Tavern (Pitman, PA)
Jack's Spot is home to a large array of great food, friendly faces, and a large selection of spirits. They also have a private party room in which many locals have enjoyed birthdays, anniversaries, family dinners, and class reunions.
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I just watched your video and figured what the hell, the worst case we end up with nothing…which is pretty much how every other loan/grant request has panned out over the last 9 months anyway, so I can handle rejection or radio silence as a response.
My name is Melissa Hoffman-Long, my husband and I own Jack's Spot, a small rural restaurant in the middle of coal country Pennsylvania. Jack's has been in operation since 1985. Old timers know it as the "Purple Pump" (there is a purple pump someone painted across the intersection). My husband is not Jack, Jack is the elderly man who was previous owner that my husband, Nick, has played euchre with over the last 20 years at Jack's, and when Jack was ready to retire he hit up my husband to take over his business. We have no experience in the restaurant business, other than we like to eat, and my husband was really drunk when he agreed to the business proposition. We now pay have a very hefty monthly payment to Jack-who owner-financed us, and he relies on that monthly payment as his retirement. We also have an incredibly loyal staff who are not aware of how much trouble we are in at this moment. Jack's has stayed in operation this entire time, with a smile, and a ton of support from our local community. Since indoor dining was shut down and it is too cold to eat outside, and we cannot afford the little igloo and heater things, the deck is super stacked against us right now.
We financed Jack's through Jack in April 2018, after running it for Jack and his wife Anita since June 2017. Nick is wildlife biologist and I am a high school science teacher, and we run our business in the evenings and on weekends. The the only reason we are still afloat is because we do not need to take a regular paycheck, and we have not taken a regular paycheck ever, all the money goes into staff, operations and whatever really expensive piece of equipment or system decides to kick it this month. Nick and I still work our full-time jobs, make promises to our kids that "one day we will shut it down for two weeks on go on the best vacation", argue a lot and get no sleep, all in the hopes that we are building something bigger than we are. We joke a lot about how this feels more like a community service project than a business opportunity. We consistently donate money and time to local youth sports, plays, fundraisers, scouts, volunteer fire companies, local medical fundraisers, etc. We have three employees who rely on us as their only source of income, and we have built the most fantastic staff of part-time employees. Our focus has been on keeping it in the black, and keeping everyone employed so we are ready to rock once we get to the other side.
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Summer went well enough, but not being able to have late-night events crushed us and our bank account, and now that indoor dining is once again shut down in PA, we had to cancel all of our private parties for December. We are not able to capitalize on late night DJs or other holiday events that paid our end of the year property and school taxes last December. We are creative, we are pushy, we have a terrific take-out model, holiday drinks to go, etc., but volume is what pays our bills, and we have a number of them due with no influx of income in sight. Restaurants are mandated take-out only until January 4th in Pennsylvania, and we lost Wednesday and Thursday night this week because of the snow storm; the hits just keep coming.
I am asking to help cover our payroll for December and payment we owe a local farmer and butcher for the steer we got last week, and the mortgage we pay. I know it is a long-shot and you are going to get thousands and thousands of emails, but it is the holidays, and maybe there is a Santa.
Regardless of how this shakes out, and if anyone has read it this far, thank you for reaching out a helping hand. This is has been a shitty year for all.
Melissa Hoffman-Long, Co-Owner, Jack's Spot