​In the Right Place, at the Right Time, With the Right People

Dempsey’s Public House celebrates its tenth anniversary

by John Strand and Tom Bixby

After Ralph’s Corner closed, was there ever going to be a bar and music venue where we could hang out with friends and feel at home? And for the musicians, a venue where talented but untried bands could get their start? We weren’t optimistic. And then it happened -- not all at once, and it took years of hard work. How does a successful business evolve? HPR asked Bert Meyers, co-proprietor of Dempsey’s.

High Plains Reader: Could you give us a description of Dempsey’s?

Bert Meyers: It’s an Irish Pub and music venue. It’s a bar that everybody goes to, for all. It’s a fun place. We’re celebrating with Nicholas Davis, a finalist on the Voice, on March 11, Friday. Hopefully the new addition, the band room, will be open by then.

HPR: What comes to mind as you approach Dempsey’s 10th anniversary?

B: I’m thinking about all the years, the good times we’ve had, the awesome employees we’ve had. And all these touring acts that have come through and the people we’ve met. And all the great music.

HPR: Some of your favorites?

B: White Iron Band, a country band, that’s one of our favorites. And then having Poitin here every three weeks, the Irish band, that’s always fun. The Melvins, that was cool. Seeing Orange 17, after many years of not seeing them, come back here -- a local band that was from here doing pretty well. And the big names that have played here, the people that went on to become bigger, like Trampled by Turtles, Band of Horses. You’ll see them on like the Tonight Show, on talk shows, and they played with us. I guess I don’t really have a favorite. So many good ones have played here. The Hold Steady, Macklemore. One of David Letterman’s favorites that played his show pretty often, The Heartless Bastards. They play here once every year or two. And then the new ones coming, to see what they do, that’s pretty cool. They play at the Aquarium, and the Aquarium’s 10 years old too.

HPR: So, Bert, how did your original look and how does it compare to what Dempsey’s and the Aquarium have become in the first decade?

B: Well, our original thing was to be an Irish Pub. I guess we always wanted the opportunity to own a bar, and then the Z license changed that. I basically sold everything I had, my business and my home, everything, and that's how we got it started. Then it’s been through family that all pitched in. The vision was that we have a place that would be music. At that time, the downtown didn’t have very many people playing anywhere. And with Ralph’s closing, it all came together. The vision changed when that happened. Then the upstairs opportunity came along. And now we just continue it.

HPR: What would you say were the biggest obstacles to overcome to get here?

B: Money, because we did it all on our own. We had to go ask to get family members and such to invest in us and they all did, they all came through. And then when we ran out of money we had to go get more. That’s always terrible. My sister Melissa, she really came through for us. At the end of construction, when we first opened, she funded it the rest of the way. Thank God! And now we are at the point where we can actually get bank loans and things like that. Banks, and most people like that, do not usually want to invest in bars. It seems you’ll not get a loan until you have money. Then you’re bankable. And that’s how we got the Wurst. The Wurst is basically a Dempsey’s success. We wouldn’t have Wurst without Dempsey’s.

HPR: How about with the city and with regulation and licensing. Any comments on any of that, especially at first?

B: They opened that Z license and I put a $200 check on deposit for it. It was first come, first served. We were the first ones. And once we got approved, it was clear sailing after that. The city auditor’s great to work with, Steve Sprague. He really helped. He gave us the information, told us what to do, and boom, you’ll get it if you get approved. We went through the whole process of getting approved. It was not that bad for us at all.

HPR: Bert, you and Klaus, you’re twin brothers, you’re friends, you’re business partners...

B: We’re close. We are best friends. We do everything together. We vacation together and we work very well together. I guess in our business relationship, it’s more like we don’t really care about the money as much as people would. So that fight is never there, you know, like who’s going to pay and get whatever. It works. It works great that way. We advise each other on everything. We ask each other’s advice on everything, on what direction we are going. He’s the numbers guy. He’s the one who gets nervous when things slow down a little bit. He’s the one that would panic. We both would say, hey if there’s something wrong, let’s fix it. Don’t worry about it. Let’s get it done. Let’s do what we have to do. We work together well in that respect. Being twins and all, it’s kind of cool that we both ended up doing the same things. We were in separate businesses. He had his landscape business and I convinced him to come into this with me. I didn’t want to do it alone and without him. And (with a hearty laugh) now he’s in it.

HPR: Describe the building. Isn’t that where Klaus really made his mark, in the structure itself and the inside, the layout, the tone, and the design, the craftsmanship?

B: Yes, Klaus does all the design, builds the tables and all the booths. He handles all construction. Plus, he’ll be doing all the remodeling for the new room, we’re going through all that right now. He knows that part of the business, which I don’t. He’s the construction guy and he watches the money. He handles the books and all that. That’s Klaus’s job. And I take care of the rest with the help of our managers who just do a lot of work for us. We’ve been lucky in that way with our GMs and management. Naomi Nelson, Jeff Fonder, and Tim Bladlow. All three of them have been here all ten years. We can leave the place in their hands and they run it. They’ve been essential. Both Tim and Fonder started as bar backs here. Now Fonder’s the GM. And we have quite a few employees who’ve been here the whole time, nine years or better. And I don’t want to overlook Chris Hennen, our promoter for shows at the Aquarium. He does a great job.

HPR: Tell us more about your staff, your relationship with them.

B: We have a great relationship with our staff. They are like family. When they’ve needed help, we have helped them. They’re important. We don’t always see eye to eye but we get her done...they seem to be very happy here. We don’t have much turnover here at all. It just takes forever to become a bartender. Sometimes they get to be discouraged about that. You have to literally wait in line before someone goes.

HPR: How would you describe your customers?

B: The age group that comes here is so varied. We have a bartender that’s 89 years old. At happy hour, the people that come in to see him: we have anything from the 21-year-olds to the 70-some-year-old person sitting here. At nights, 25 to 40-year-olds. It’s just a huge mix. And our regulars have come here sometimes since day one. They become great friends. And they’ll let you know when things aren’t right. As they should, and that’s fine. We listen to them.

HPR: How would you describe the competitive environment, especially with others downtown?

B: A lot more crowded, and there’s going to be more coming. You just position yourselves to try to do better and to be better. That’s all you can really do. We’re always trying new promotions.

HPR: How about law enforcement?

B: When we first opened, we had growing pains. I wouldn’t blame it on law enforcement. We just let everybody in. We tried to give people chances, but as time went on, we cleaned up – I don’t know how to say it nicely but we got rid of some people. We didn’t know who’s bad on the street. We were the new guy and it seemed like we weren’t getting along. Chief Ternes brought us in for a meeting. We got along together and we figured it out. And then we opened at four. We used to open at noon and that’s when we had our troubles. The most trouble was from noon to three, very stressful. We’ve had a pretty good relationship with the police since then. We always have two security guys on staff from the second we open. Because you just never know, sh** can happen.

HPR: If you were to describe a key to success in a business sense, what would you say that it is?

B: I don’t know. I always say that we’re very lucky people. But we try to concentrate on service, being friendly to people, being nice to people, being loyal to our vendors and loyal to our staff. We’re always thinking how can we do it better. We meet once a week on everything with the managers and try to stay on top of everything. We try to provide the fastest, the best service that we can, and I think we do a pretty damn good job at it. And I would say listen to your customers, listen to what they are saying. Take every one of their concerns seriously.

HPR: As an extension of that, what’s the best advice you could give other entrepreneurs?

B: My best advice is to do it correctly the first time. To have enough money ready to go and to do it the way you want to do it. Sometimes I see people start these little places and they’re making the same mistakes I did. In the end we succeeded, but we didn’t have the money to do it the way we wanted to do it. My advice to them would be to be nice to your employees. And get it exactly the way you want it, your design and everything, have it all looking good. I don’t even know how people can start anymore the way we got started, so small. The amount of money it takes to open a place now is crazy. It has changed so much, dramatically and financially. I started my first place, literally a hole in the wall, I think for around 5,500 bucks. The first day I did, I think, $600 in business and I was like, “Oh my God, I’m going to like just kill it.” And then I think I did like $25 a day for three months. And I was working like 105 hours a week. Sometimes I think, how did we get here? How did we get to this point? How did we get to Dempsey’s, just to start it? I made zero dollars the first four years. Then downtown finally took off.

HPR: You have a lot of fun doing what you’re doing? It doesn’t seem painful. You really like it. Am I right about that?

B: Oh yeah, we like it. We know we are lucky. Every day we have worked hard, I guess, to get where we are at. We feel blessed and we know that we are lucky that we got the opportunity to open this bar. Not a lot of people get to do that in this town. Sometimes there are headaches. That’s the bar business. You just deal with it, you fix it. It has been fun.

Dempsey’s Public House and The Aquarium’s 10th Anniversary celebration plans

Dempsey’s and the Aquarium will celebrate their 10th Anniversary on the weekend of Friday, March 11 with some concerts featuring some popular artists from around the region.. Dempsey’s will feature Nicholas David, former contestant on NBC’s The Voice on March 11 for no cover charge at 10 pm. The Aquarium will host rapper P.O.S. from Minneapolis for his first headlining show in Fargo since 2009 on March 11 along with Detroit’s Protomartyr, Animal Lover (from Minneapolis) and locals SuperCruiser. On March 12, Minneapolis based pop soul crooner Har Mar Superstar returns to the Aquarium with Portland’s Radiation City, Deep Sea Diver (members of the Shins) and Grand Forks act Disappear Forever. The Aquarium shows start at 9 pm, with doors at 8 pm, advance tickets for both shows available at Orange Records and ticketweb.com