Dayton937

In 1997, 7 gentlemen, all with varied backgrounds, joined together to purchase a vacant eyesore property that formerly housed a Shell gas station.  The Shell station was built in 1965. This historic, but dilapidated site would soon tell the tale of an iconic Irish pub.

On Monday, their 35th anniversary they are rollin back the menu to price from 1998 for one day only:

Owner Steve  Tieber sat down with us to tell us the tale of how the Dublin Pub came to be;

DD: How long had DubPub been a concept in your minds before it actually opened?

ST: Well, it actually started as a cigar bar.  We all had a passion for Cigars and Guinness. When we realized we all had Irish heritage in common we knew it had to be some sort of Irish pub, and that’s when we heard about an authentic Irish pub concept that had opened in Buckhead I’min Atlanta called FADO. This was the first Irish pub concept where the Irish pub was built and designed in Ireland and shipped over. Although that sounded amazing, we did not have that kind of money.  So we knew that we were going to have to build it all in Dayton. When we were looking for a location at one time we had looked at the second floor of the building that Ned Peppers is in. Jim Schaefer who was the owner had just optioned the Shell gas station which had been vacant for six years because he was interested in putting a drive-through on the corner of fifth and Wayne but he was having some problems getting that done. That’s when he suggested selling the property to us.  He already had a liquor license which back then the Oregon district had a cap on 17 licenses and this was one of the original 17.  It was actually a license that at one time belong to Plums which was the lower level of the Wiley’s building before Wileys moved over there.  So all in all we opened May 15 of 1998 with 29 employees.  So all in all we open May 15 of 98, but this whole process started in early 97 so it only took about a year and a half from concept to opening.

ST: We are always looking at future opportunities to expand.  There might be something in the near future.   

DD: What’s the biggest think you’ve learned from 25 years of running the biz?

ST: Three things:  

1.  Treat the staff as family  
2.  You must always be working in your business and creating new events and keep your menus fresh.
3.  Customer service, Customer Service, Customer a service.  

This last one is key. Yeah,  there are times when things don’t work out for a customer, but we are proud that we have 4.5 stars out of 3,300 reviews on Google. And one thing I always want to stress to our customers is that no matter what we will make your experience right if something falls short in their visit. I had someone text me know that they came in just a few days ago and sat at the bar for five minutes and nobody said anything to them while they saw employees standing by just talking, and they did not acknowledge him, so he left. This was at 4pm.  I told him that he got there at shift change and to always make contact with the staff if they have not been acknowledged because they will go above and beyond to over compensate.  Sadly,  in this day and age,  there’s a lot of things we cannot control we can train an employee but they still may decide not to do things the way that we have trained and sometimes we are short staffed when employees call in for sickness or car trouble. No matter what our entire staff knows to do whatever it takes if something falls short during a patrons visit. Most important, we encourage our customers to let us know if something is not to their expectations and we will fix it.

The new addition

DD:  What can we expect next from Dub Pub?

ST: Future plans are to expand our front patio with a new design. We have had a hell of a ride with highlights of Sheryl Crow playing on our stage.  The Violent Femmes, Blue Oyster Cult, and Berlin have all played the pub. Quentin Tarantino had dinner at the pub after seeing “How the West was Won” at the Neon with the Cinerama wide screen experience.  Lots of great memories, now 25 more years of memories are on our agenda.