Hoping to spin success with food and music

Revolutions owners pursue business dream with downtown bar and grill

By: Charlie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — Patrons at the new downtown Revolutions Bar & Grill may get their cheeseburger with a "Whole Lotta Love" or beer drawn after a little "Centerfold."

Deb and Dana Rohr are betting about $200,000 they can run a successful business in the former Gothum City, 861 N. Ninth St., with a name reflecting the couple's love of music.

Dana Rohr has several turntables that can play his extensive collection of vinyl LPs including two of his favorite 1960s-70s bands — Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant belting out "Whole Lotta Love" and Peter Wolf singing "Centerfold" as lead vocalist for the J. Geils Band.

"Revolutions refers to the revolutions per minute of records," Dana Rohr said. The walls of the bar and grill, which re-opened for drinks in November and food in January, feature dozens of framed original album covers.

"I also have a big collection of 45s," Dana Rohr said of the smaller records that usually had one song on the "A" side and another on the "B" side.

"While we were doing all of our renovations I discovered a four-album set of 78s … 'Fundamentals of Accounting,'" he said. They won't be played over the new speaker system in the bar area, with 28 stools, or in the dining room, with seating for 42.

In September the Rohrs paid $117,000 for the building built in 1920 by the Knights of Columbus. "KofC" brass doorknobs can still be found on many of the three-story building's original solid oak or mahogany doors.

Deb Rohr continued to work as a real estate agent for Commercial Residential during the day and worked with her husband of 20 years at night coming up with new possible looks for the various areas of the building.

Dana quit his bartending job at another Lakeshore-area tavern and spent the entire fall going through hundreds of gallons of paint — red flowerpot, wild oat yellow, lime kiss green, and black — translating the color schemes on computer models to finished new surfaces on the ceilings and walls.

The couple said they've invested nearly $100,000 in renovations, including purchasing kitchen equipment. "We also did just a whole lot of cleaning … this place was pretty dirty," said Deb.

The Rohrs have been serving lunch and dinner seven days a week for four weeks including appetizers, salads, wraps, sandwiches, pastas, and entrees featuring strip steaks, tenderloins, various chicken, pork, fish and shrimp dishes.

Deb said their menu offerings were influenced by the expertise of their head chef, Chuck Hart, and two other full-time chefs, Mike Hart and Art Sprague.

"I'm often the last guy cooking … if I have a bar full of people who want something to eat then I'm there cooking late," said Dana, who has been a bartender and cook for all his adult life. "Over time we will see more revenue from food."

Tending bar full-time are Gina Rohr (Dana's sister), as well as Matt Reed and his fiance, Sam Schweigl, with Mackenzie Reed working full time as a waitress.

The purchase, physical changes and staff hires all add up to the realization of the Rohrs' dream of 15 years to open their own hospitality business.

They said creating a better kitchen was challenging.

"We appreciate all the help we got from (the county) health department," Deb said.

The city's building and inspection department also provided guidance for what kinds of physical renovations could be undertaken and have the century-old building meet possible Americans with Disabilities Act mandates.

Now all Dana has to be concerned about is putting in 70-plus hour workweeks, with Deb helping out before or after real estate duties. Of their four children, the oldest, Taylor, 18, will be helping out as a waitress and bartender.

"We will need to make sure our food is consistently good," Dana said. "We do have a friendly staff and everybody helps each other."

The Rohrs hope to host future live music nights featuring area bands where under-21s can attend.

They'd like get into playable shape by summer four lanes of duckpin bowling in the basement.

On Saturday night, Revolutions will host "Sonic  Boom," with three California DJs pumping out songs in dub step, hip-hop and glitch-hop for adults paying $5 apiece.

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