Austin Johnson, The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.
·4 min read
Nov. 1—ASHLAND — The City of Ashland will welcome the first Irish pub to the area at the beginning of next year.
Jerk Riley's Irish Pub is eyeing to open its doors to the public in January 2024. The entertainment venue will feature live music, arcade machines and a selection of beers and specialty drinks.
Bill Bare, co-owner of Jerk's, stressed that the venue will not be just another restaurant.
"We are trending more toward an entertainment venue," he said. "It wont be just a place to eat, but a place to hang out. This will be a place to where you can come in play games and have a decent dinner."
The pub will feature Irish dishes with an American twist of which Bare said will be food for all guests dining in to enjoy. He said the restaurant menu will be a smaller menu.
"We are going to offer smaller but better," Bare said. "What we will offer we want to be good at. ... If you don't like the Irish type foods, we offer something for everyone to come in."
The name of the pub comes from a nickname given to his grandfather years ago.
"Everybody called my grandfather Jerk (Hayward "Jerk" Riley), he was an Irish boy — served in World War II and grew up in Huntington. He was so ornery that all the neighborhood adults would call him Jerk and it stuck with him his whole life," Bare said. "He owned several different pubs in Huntington over the years."
With the Irish pub being the first planned to come to the Ashland area in 2024. Bare said the pub will have a unique feel and will stand out from other corporate businesses in the area.
"They don't have live music, local performers playing," he said. "They are going to rush you in and rush you out so they can put another one in. ... We aren't that way, we want you to come in and be a part of it. The national chains do not provide entertainment."
He added, "I love it when others come in and bring their flavors to town. We need to taste theirs, but we also need to promote our flavors. I would like to show the taste of Ashland to Lexington, maybe someday we will."
The pub will be at the old CR Thomas building off Greenup Avenue which has been under renovations for several months. He said the building needed a lot of work.
"It was in very poor condition when we bought it," Bare said. "We've been doing small improvements over the last few months. We are getting it restored and trying to bring it back to its glory years."
Bare said the journey of owning businesses in Ashland took off in 2016, but said the entrepreneur blood has always been in him since he was a kid. Now in 2023, Bill and Christy are gearing up to open their sixth business.
"It actually probably started when I was in fourth or fifth grade when I was selling candy at school until they shut me down," Bare said.
He was inspired by other cities catering to pubs and said it made him want to bring the entertainment to Ashland.
"When we travel to these other towns, we have so much fun going to these downtowns where you can pub-hop going from one venue to the next; they are all outside, and it's just a vibe.
"We are hoping that the downtown develops more into an entertainment district. The Irish pubs are very popular when you go to Lexington or Columbus."
Bare said he came to Ashland at 24 years old and since then has made a great city to invest in.
"We love Ashland, we invest a lot into Ashland and we want to continue that," he said. "This is where I want my kids to come back to. One has moved away and the other is still here. I want them to come back, stay here and invest in the town."
He added, "I think the pub is going to be a fun place and it's what Ashland needs. I'm hoping it becomes contagious and other pubs come along the way."
(606) 326-2657 — ajohnson@dailyindependent.com
