It’s pretty simple to Mike and Doug Carl because they really do like slinging beers.
The new owners of the Bridge Tavern and Grill have made a lot of changes on the interior of the eatery to this point, and many more are in the pipeline. The brothers, who acquired the property with two other partners, is now orchestrating a total gutting of the upper floors of the structure for office/retail space as well as six condos on the third and fourth floors.
Why?
“Mike and I have been talking about doing a bar for a long time,” Doug explained. “We would always meet in Nashville and spend the weekend going to all of the honkey-tonk bars down there because we’re fans of country music.
“For the last 15 years, we kept saying that we had to do this. We wanted something that reminded us of those places in Nashville,” he continued. “Right now, this is what we wanted to do at this point in our lives, and we looked at a number of different buildings over the years but really didn’t find what we wanted.”
Here, Not There
During those trips, Mike and Carl were determined to create what they envisioned, but not in the popular Tennessee town but instead in downtown Wheeling. That is why, for more than a decade, they searched the Friendly City for the perfect property.
“We looked around for a lot of years, and two of the ones that we looked at were the Flatiron and the MARSH Stogie buildings, but those buildings were just buildings,” Doug said. “But then this one came up for sale about five years ago, and that’s when we bought it,” Doug recalled. “We told George to continue operating the Bridge for as long as he wanted and that there was no rush. We were all doing different things, so we weren’t in that much of a hurry.
“But then in 2018, George said to us, ‘Boys, I’m done,’” he said. “George was ready to retire after a lot of years operating this restaurant and bar, and that’s when we bought the restaurant and bar business from him. That’s when I sold everything in Atlanta and moved back home.”
“It’s just a passion to us, and we love going to live music entertainment, so a part of the end game for Bridge is that the front door as we know it now will be replaced with a corner stage so we can have live music here,” Doug revealed. “That’s when the side door becomes the main door, and we have live music a few times a week.
“It’s all about bringing country music back to downtown Wheeling,” he continued. “We’ll have country music here, and we may dabble in the blues some, too. But there will not be cover bands playing the ’80s, and there won’t be heavy metal or pop music either. We did have a couple of bands in here before the pandemic, and everyone who was here seemed to enjoy it very much.”
To This Point
Thus far, the bar area has been renovated, and improvements have been made to the restaurant area too with much more to come. The back room once used as an overflow area when a popular show was taking place at the Capitol Theatre is now where the Waiting Room Parlor has been built. Plus, a part of the building that housed Wheeling Coin for many years soon will be an events area that will be leased to groups for gatherings.
“The reaction we’ve received has been amazingly positive,” Doug admitted. “The people here on Wheeling, we feel, are cheering for us, and everyone has been so nice when welcoming me back to Wheeling. That’s meant a lot to me.
“When they hear about some of the renovations that are still to come, they have been very receptive, and a lot of our patrons have had some really great ideas,” he said. “It’s a completely smoke-free building, and that includes the Waiting Room Parlor, and people really do appreciate that. Plus, we have an events room that is under construction as we speak, so that will be a great thing to offer the folks in this area.”
Although the Bridge Tavern has been a popular gathering place for decades in downtown Wheeling, the Carls are hoping their vision translates into one of the most unique establishments in the Upper Ohio Valley.
“I think it’s going to be really cool for people to be able to turn the corner at 10th and Main and see the bands playing in the window. I believe that will be a nice boost for downtown Wheeling,” Doug said. “And really, who knows what could follow? There are other buildings that are for sale, so it is our hope that we add to the momentum.”
Burgers and Beers
The Bridge’s new hours are 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; the coolers and shelves are always stocked, and the menu kind of looks familiar with the burgers, the chicken wings, and those hot turkey sandwiches.
But wait. What’s that? And that? And what do you mean each Sunday that you will haev brunch from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.?
“There are a lot of menu items that fans of the Bridge will recognize, but there are some news things on the menu, too,” Doug said. “We grew up here, and so did our parents, so we know what people in this area really like and appreciate and a lot of it was already on George’s menu.
“But we did throw a couple of twists on there too,” he said with a smile. “There are a few new starters, and there a few new sandwiches, too. But the staples are the staples here in the valley, so that’s why those items have remained on the menu.”
So, after nearly three decades as a government bureaucrat, now Doug Carl is a bartender/waiter/cook/partner, and he digs it. All of it.
“I am having an absolute blast with this place,” he insisted. “Now, there are times when I’m in the restaurant, and I just have to scratch my head because there are so many moving parts, but in the bar? I could work this bar all night long.
“I just really love being a bartender,” Doug added. “And we did widen the bar, and our customers really like that change because it can get pretty busy in here on some nights. I just can’t wait until we do reach that end game with all the renovation completed because we really want to be a part of what I feel is happening in downtown Wheeling. There is a vibe in downtown Wheeling, and we really want to be a part of that.”
