Come next semester, Rick’s Cafe will be getting lucky. After a short stint on Main Street, Lucky’s is moving in with the music venue.
“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” Seth Onan, owner of Lucky’s, said. “Rick and I were competing with each other when we shouldn’t have.”
“It started out as a joke,” Cafe owner Rick Welch said. “We were beating up on each other. Rick’s was getting the Friday and Saturday crowd and Lucky’s was getting the Wednesday and Thursday crowd.”
Though the two bar owners were competing, they said their rivalry was friendly.
“Rick and I have been friends since I got into the business a couple of years ago, so it just made sense to form an alliance,” Onan said.
Those who have driven past Rick’s recently may have noticed that big changes are in store.
“We’re actually adding two new bars,” Welch said. “Outside where all the main construction is visible will be the new outside bar called Tiki. That, of course, will be seasonal.”
“Upstairs, above Rick’s, will be our new location for Lucky’s,” Onan said.
Don’t expect the exact same Lucky’s that was on Main Street. Onan said that the d‹¨cor and overall feel will change.
“Lucky’s is going to be a blues/piano/lounge bar,” he said. “We want it to be very comfortable: low lighting, very ‘loungy.’ We’re actually adding a bunch of really comfortable couches.”
In their efforts to make Lucky’s even more upscale than before, Onan will add a women’s only lounge next to the restrooms.
Onan said the crowd will likely change as well.
“We’re going for a more laid-back atmosphere, so we’ll probably attract an older crowd,” he said. “We’re going to try to get some of the professors and such to come. We also want to be able to offer a place to businesses and professionals in town to be able to come after a hard day’s work and get a drink and some food.”
Speaking of food, Onan and Welch said they’ll have a single menu for Rick’s, Lucky’s and Tiki.
“We’re still working on the menu at this point,” Onan said, “but we’re going to try to have some specials on the weekend to draw in the older crowd. We’ll hopefully have some good seafood and steak, maybe even some pasta.”
Even though they’re focusing on new clientele, Lucky’s will still be very student friendly.
“We had two or three student art shows when Lucky’s was on Main Street,” Onan said. “I enjoyed every one of them. It was a nice laid-back crowd, and I’d definitely be open to doing something like that again.”
“What’s so great about the addition of the new bars is the versatility,” Welch said. “We can now have several things going on at once. If a campus group or someone else wants to have a private party, we can do that at Lucky’s if I have bands booked, or vice versa if Lucky’s has someone booked.”
Aside from the addition of Lucky’s and Tiki, Rick’s Cafe is expected to undergo other transformations.
“We’ll be making some changes to Rick’s,” Welch said. “Some of them we’ve already incorporated.”
Welch said that most of the changes to Rick’s will be for the comfort of the audience and the bands that visit.
“We’re adding 20 more tons of air,” he said. “We’re tearing out the old bathrooms and redoing those. We’re also adding some things for our bands like band showers and a washer and dryer. They usually don’t have access to those on the road, so we want to make it a little more comfortable for them.”
Other changes include repaving the parking lot and adding a new facade to the front of the building, which is currently being constructed.
“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” Onan said. “It’s going to be very eye-opening.”
“It’ll be well worth the wait,” Welch said. “I really appreciate everyone’s patience with the construction. We knew it was going to be nice, but recently we realized it’s going to be nicer than we first imagined.”