Hamilton’s West Town — ‘Locke Street’s living room’ — going up for sale

You'd hardly be surprised to find some patrons listing it as their mailing address, not that anyone does.

Just send it to the West Town. You can always find me there."

For many, it's a kind of home.

For this city, not just Locke Street, it stands as a tan brick bastion of permanence and stability (as much as a bar/restaurant can be), its Art Deco sign beckoning, with distinctive Broadway font, red lettering against a white background and blue/rose outline.

It's suspended high over the sidewalk from a metal spar sticking out of the Fanning building and visible almost the length of the street. Even if you can't see it you can likely picture it in your mind.

Now, or rather very soon, the West Town Bar & Grill is up for sale.

The Stanicak family - Joe, wife Pat and son Brandon - are packing it in, after 32 years. They have presided over a remarkable turnaround from the challenges of the early days when Locke Street was rundown and troubled. The Stanicaks and their quickly loyal patrons soon took care of the more difficult elements on the street back then.

If you're a fan, don't panic. This is not a fire sale," says Brandon, adding the family will be particular about whom they sell to. The West Town is their legacy and they would be loath to see its character change.

They have the luxury to be selective.

The West Town is doing very well," says Brandon. They're leaving at a high water mark in the bar/restaurant's history.

A phrase I like," says Brandon, is Locke Street's Living Room.'"

The living room of Locke Street. And more.

The large comfortable patio they instituted as a COVID pivot" has been a great success. They have a large loyal following of long-standing patrons and their families but, says Pat, they also have a steady stream of new people propping up their numbers, as Locke Street grows in popularity.

The future looks better than ever," says Pat. It (West Town) is a destination."

But, she adds, Joe is 75 and she is 72. Brandon for his part, while younger, is ready for a change.

Joe loves this place and its customers - we all do - but he would stay 'til they carry him out. Realistically, it might be nice to take it easy," says Pat.

They're on the job pretty well around the clock and around the calendar. That usually includes Thanksgivings and Christmases and such, when The West Town is a special holiday hearth for those who don't have other places to go.

And New Year's Eve. One year in the '90s, Brandon recalls, someone drove their car right through the front. No one was hurt. But they had to close for several days. A rare thing for the West Town.

I don't want to keep working seven days a week," says Brandon.

Neither does Pat want to keep working long hours, nor does she want to see her son and husband keep working like they do.

On top of the hours, says Pat, food costs are going up and the regulations and red tape involved in running a restaurant/bar are just getting ever more complex.

Pat, Brandon explains, does all the back of house work - bills, finances and such.

So many people think it's just me and my dad - we're front of house - but if mom weren't handing the back of house we'd go under in six weeks."

It's always been that kind of teamwork.

After a stint owning the Park House Hotel, Joe went to work for Amstel. When that brewery shut down and Pat also lost her corporate job at the time to downsizing, they took their severance pay and bought the Town, which was not then as it is today.

If Locke Street is a diamond now, in 1990 it was, as mentioned, very much one in the rough. A lot of boarded-up shops," says Pat. People thought of it as a druggie place."

As soon as they took over, she says, there was zero tolerance" for trouble. They played old '50s and '60s music, they served a variety of craft beer which was unheard of at the time and they improved the menu. Soon, the clientele felt a sense of ownership."

If there was trouble at one table, five or six tables would stand up," she says. Then there was no more trouble.

They just kept building and building and adding touches. They put the menu on the mirror behind the bar. Always something novel and appealing.

In 1993, she recalls, they were rocked back on their feet when their landlord went bankrupt and they ended up buying the building far sooner than they'd planned. But they managed. Later they would buy even more land on Locke.

Over the years, the Stanicaks turned West Town into a true hybrid of a family restaurant, replete with colouring books at the table, and a beloved neighbourhood bar, a destination on many levels and for many demographics, not any easy trick.

Brandon says the listing will probably happen soon, within the next several months. They're open to selling the business only, business plus building or business plus building and other buildings the Stanicaks own in the area.

There is no figure yet but Brandon says the family talked and they feel the business alone is worth more than a million and the building, with patio probably around $4 million, at least.

Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator.jmahoney@thespec.com