By Joe Hyde
Publisher
September 9, 2007

For the past ten years, San Angelo business owners Dan and Jewell Bailey have experienced one heck of a ride building a loyal clientele at Bailey’s Sports Bar (2319 W.Avenue N, San Angelo, Tex.). They recently entered an agreement to sell the establishment and are planning a retirement celebration on September 29th at the bar.

Dan and Jewell are not the proprietors you may expect to run a bar. Dan retired from the USAF as a Chief Master Sgt. in 1994. His wife Jewell, a lifelong San Angelo resident, was a dedicated Air Force spouse for many years, but also managed a local clothing store. When Dan’s first job after retirement wasn’t working out, they spotted a restaurant called The Dugout Grill behind the current Bailey’s location and bought it. “We ran the Dugout Grill for about two years, and then the bar became available, so we bought it too in 1997,” Dan said.

The first order of business was to change the bar’s name to Bailey’s Sports Bar and Grill. Then Dan and Jewell worked on building a regular crowd. “People who don’t go to bars can’t envision what really happens at bars. It’s all about your clientele,” Jewell said. “We really have three crowds at Bailey’s. In the early afternoon, you’ll see doctors, lawyers, and professional people conducting business. Then you have your happy hour crowd. Towards the end of the evening, the younger crowd shows up,” she said. The key to running a successful bar is the fun. People come to Bailey’s for the fun because we really are the ‘funnest’ bar in town,” Jewell said.

Dan and Jewell learned that bars are meaningful and purposeful places during their stint. “If they don’t have a place to go and have fun, where will the young people go?” Jewell asked rhetorically. Dan interrupted, “And a lot of the world’s problems are solved in a bar. That’s because places like these are great stress relievers.”

Dan runs the business end and laments about the struggles of the small business owner. “We tell people we hire here that this is a business that when we put money into it, we expect to get something back in return,” he said. The biggest challenge of the bar business is that it is practically an all cash business. “We have to find ways to account for everything that goes in and comes out,” Dan said.

One of those challenges is spillage. “It took me a while, but I know from experience generally how much gross revenue a keg of beer should generate. I stay on top of it,” Dan said. He also experimented with high technology for the bar business. “We tried the Azbar beer dispenser where everything that was poured was measured. We found it to be too slow because it could only pour one drink at a time,” Dan said.

Jewell noted that their success is also attributed to their hiring of good people. “We pay a little more for bartenders, above the minimum wage. We hope to keep the turnover down,” she said. A typical bartender at Bailey’s can expect to make around $200 per night on Friday and Saturday with tips.

Jewell is proud of the way she and her husband ran Bailey’s. “Everything is completely above board,” she said. “When I go home we can go to sleep without worrying.”

About two years into their tenure as bar owners, the couple decided to cease operations of the small grill in the back where it all began. “We found that unless you specialize in a particular food type, it is really hard to make money in the food business,” Dan said. The grill provided a variety of good menu choices, but nothing really stood out. “We were spending 80% of our time with the grill and it was only bringing in 20% of the money,” Dan said. They keep the equipment operational, and it is available for special occasions he said. “The profit margin on food just isn’t as good as it was with the bar, so we decided to concentrate where the money was,” Dan said.

Dan and Jewell will look back fondly at their career as bar owners. “We’ve had some hilarious Halloween parties. Heck, I have so many wild stories I think I might write a book!” he said. Jewell said, “I’ll remember the Christmas dinners. Or New Year’s Eve. And then there is St. Patrick’s Day... Everything keys back to all the wonderful people we’ve met here.”

But the employees are the dearests of all to Jewell. “I have met in the employee ranks people along the way who are very dear to me. I’m ‘Mom’ to a lot of them,” Jewell said. Dan joked, “Yeah, that’s why she is personnel. I just do the books.”

“The money is OK in the bar business. But I’ll tell you, if wasn’t for the great people we’ve worked with and were our customers, we’d probably have left earlier,” Dan said.

The couple has worked so hard for the past ten years that even the most basic retirement activities sound alluring to them. “I am going to go out in my backyard for the first time in years and fish,” Jewell said. They live on Lake Nasworthy and have rarely been able to enjoy it. “I think its time to take some trips,” Dan said. “I want to go see my sister in Florida and my mother in Pennsylvania,” he continued. “Since 1997, since we’ve been in the bar business, we’ve made only two weekend trips,” Jewell laments. “I want to sit on the other side of the bar for a while,” she said.

In the U.S. Air Force, upon your retirement, it is customary to leave a few “parting shots” for your colleagues you are leaving behind. I asked Dan for his now that he is leaving his third career. “In San Angelo, the bars are aggressive and very competitive. They don’t work together; rather they work against each other. There is a lot of potential if the bars worked together,” Dan said. Among the ways local bars can work together is by holding group events like a “bar olympics.” Dan is also adamant that San Angelo needs to support the local sports teams, particularly the minor league teams like San Angelo Colts baseball and the Stampede Express arena football team. “I’d like to see these teams grow and get linked to major league teams. I’d like to give these local athletes a ladder to climb,” he said. That way, once a star player is recognized locally, San Angelo can keep that player around for multiple seasons.

On Saturday, September 29, 2007, Dan and Jewell are throwing their retirement party at Bailey’s. Everyone is invited to attend. They promise good friends, great food, and entertainment. “And one of the best D.J.s in town, Chris Boyce,” Jewell added.

Many of those wishing the Baileys well in their retirement will be their admiring fans: current and former employees like Leigh Aylesworth. “I have worked for Dan and Jewell for several years and it has been a fantastic experience. They are wonderful people to work for,” said the Bailey’s bartender. She has been working at Bailey’s while she completes her degree in Physical Therapy at Angelo State University (expected graduation date December 2007). “Dan and Jewell treat you like family and will help you out any way they can,” she concluded.