ATHENS, Ohio — An establishment that advertises “Free Beer Tomorrow,” hosts a “Mayberry Corner,” and offers “Attitude Adjustment Hours” on its menu: There is no other place in Athens quite like The Pub.
Located at 39 N. Court St., what might be Athens’ most “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant and bar — what owner Thomas Van Dyke calls a “local dive” — The Pub will celebrate its 50th anniversary this Saturday, June 29. Saturday’s festivities will run from noon to 11 p.m.
Coinciding with the Athens Summer Concert Series, Saturday’s event does not only celebrate The Pub’s milestone anniversary, but also summer in Athens: The day will consist of street closures, vendors, a bouncy house, musical acts starting at 5 p.m. and more.
Van Dyke said The Pub crew chose June 29 to celebrate, as it was the date in 2010 when Van Dyke and his wife, Mary, closed in on a loan to own and operate the business.
Previously, Van Dyke was The Pub’s general manager under Steve and Teresa “Tes” Sines, who opened The Pub in 1974. He began working there in 1988 as a day manager.
“During the daytime, we’re a restaurant, and during the day, we have everybody — lawyers, judges, construction workers, students — very big mix,” Van Dyke said. “Everyone’s welcome. And we’re very proud of that.”
Regulars may detest or embrace the “Pub rat” nickname, but those who frequent the bar (during restaurant hours) come for its friendly staff and good food. Those who frequent it for nightlife will find loud music, a lively crowd and as always, friendly staff.
And that’s what Van Dyke credits to The Pub’s success: its workers.
“The key to the business is your employees,” Van Dyke said. “They have to have personality, they have to be able to hold a crowd and they have to be honest. That’s really important.”
Van Dyke said his general manager of 18 years, Garrett Mathson, and kitchen manager, M.J. Fields, have been working on the anniversary event over the past year.
Van Dyke said that Mathson shares the same passion for The Pub.
“We work really hard to make the place look the same,” Van Dyke said. “I’ve had somebody who told me that. He says, like, ‘Tom, that’s what I love the most. I come back here — five years — the place looks the same, it has basically the same menu, the prices are great, and it’s like coming home.’ And that’s what we work hard to make it; a place for somebody to come back 10 years later and feel like [they’re] walking back in to what they remember. That’s what’s important to myself and Garrett.”
Van Dyke hopes to continue The Pub’s legacy of community. He hopes Mathson will “take over for me,” he said. “I’m going to be 64 and I’m tired — this thing, this 50th is wearing me out!”
Lots of former Pub workers are coming back to visit Athens and celebrate The Pub for its anniversary, Van Dyke said.
“We’ve got like 30 hotel rooms blocked off for old Pub staff,” Van Dyke said. “And a lot of people from over the years are coming back, too, to enjoy this.”
The Pub will sell $2 burgers during the event — “1974 prices,” Van Dyke said — as well as fundraise for Athens County’s Veterans Treatment Court. Additionally, Devil’s Kettle Brewing crafted a double IPA for the anniversary that likely will be tapped Thursday, he said.
Despite maintaining so much of its originality, The Pub has undergone changes over the years, Van Dyke said.
“We went through a lot of transition,” he said. “When I started, the drinking age was 19 for beer, 21 for alcohol, which was kind of weird. And that only lasted a couple of years and we had to transition … At nighttime, a lot of those kids were young, and because we’re not one of the bigger places on the street, once it went to fully 21 we became pretty strict. We wanted the upperclassmen.”
Van Dyke hopes The Pub’s 50th anniversary event evolves into an annual reunion of sorts, he said.
“What we’d like to turn it into, is do it every summer, and do it as a bar worker reunion — a bar worker homecoming — and turn this into a yearly thing,” Van Dyke said. “If everybody who used to work at the bars would come back and see all their old friends, it’d just be a hoot.”
And it’s evident: Mayberry Corner, for example, memorializes The Pub’s past — specifically its regulars, including the one who provided the sign: Richard O. Linke.
“He was a Hollywood producer, he was actually Andy Griffith’s agent,” Van Dyke said. “He was his agent all through Mayberry, all through those shows — and he came back here to teach in the early ’90s, he went here [Ohio University] in the ’50s,” Van Dyke said. “But he was back here for three years, and he gave me a lot of that stuff for Mayberry.”
Van Dyke explained that as items disappeared from the wall — stolen by ornery bar patrons — the corner has shifted into one that honors The Pub’s history. “We’ve tried to turn it into a memorial from our best people that we love and we’ve lost,” he said.
“Two guys that are back there were in the band and they died in a car accident, way too young – came in for Aquariums all the time,” Van Dyke said. “Another fellow we have up there was Bob Scott, he worked at Follett’s, and he came down and ate lunch there every day, Monday through Friday.”
Other folks who are loved and missed are Chuck Haegele, a local police officer whom The Pub called its “Protector,” Van Dyke said. “He was up there at night all the time. And just a great friend of The Pub.” Another individual who is memorialized is Bob Hartley, who cleaned up the bar floor four days a week for many years.
“They’re memorialized in the bar, too, and probably some day I will be,” Van Dyke said. “As far as The Pub goes, it’s been very important to me; these people become such good friends.”
For more information, visit The Pub’s website, Facebook or Instagram pages.
