BAINBRIDGE – After sitting empty for quite some time, Jerry's Inn, at 18 W. Main St. in Bainbridge has reopened and will once more take its place as a pillar of the downtown Bainbridge landscape.
Under ownership of Brian and Tracie Champlin – also the owners of Hometown Hardware in Bainbridge – the Inn has received some structural renovations and is now serving food.
The establishment was empty for about a year before the Champlins decided to buy it. They opened up the interior and made what Brian Champlin describes as a lounge. They offer a full bar and bar food like hamburgers and fries and homemade soup every day.
“We are actually serving more food than we anticipated,” said Tracie Champlin. “It’s like a tavern menu – simple fare – but it’s good. We also do a daily lunch special.”
“Our cook is fantastic,” said Brian. “We’re doing 10 times the food I initially thought we would.”
The couple purchased the bar in August of 2014 and opened for business in mid January of 2015. And business has been great, exclaimed Tracie. In their first week of business they were “slammed,” said Brian. “And it has exceeded my expectations.”
“The locals have been so supportive and fantastic,” said Brian. “Word of mouth travels fast and we’re hearing nothing but rave reviews.”
Tracie said, “We renovated the inside in as much as it’s got updated plumbing and electrical, and a few changes to the layout – we opened up a wall that was between the bar and what was the dining room.”
When asked about their motivation for purchasing the defunct watering hole, and her expectations about business, Tracie waxes nostalgic about the Inn's role in Bainbridge's history.
“I anticipated that business would be pretty good initially because Jerry’s is an icon. It’s been here as long as all of us. It was a rite of passage for people – you know, 'now I’m old enough, I can go to Jerry’s,'” said Tracie. “So a lot of people were waiting for it to reopen because it had been closed for a year.”
Tracie explained that she was born and raised in Bainbridge, and like all the little towns around here, everything was just kind of dying on the vine. “And I knew if somebody didn’t do something then it’s going to end up being torn down and it just seemed wrong,” said Tracie. “We just wanted to save it, just so there was one more business opened instead of closed.”
Originally, the Inn was not a bar – it was a grocery store. Charles Taber, a local man, opened a grocery store in the location nearly 100 years ago.
The establishment took on the name Jerry's in the 1930s when a man by the name of Jerry Perelli began running the place.
“I’m not sure that he owned the place,” said Tracie, “but I do believe that Jerry ran the restaurant. And I don’t know that there was a bar there at the time – the bar came a little later on. And that’s what it’s been since – since the 40s maybe.”
The Champlins' are planning on having a grand opening sometime in 2015. Tracie said that they will probably wait until the weather gets a little nicer.
Jerry's Inn serves lunch and dinner and is open every day at 11 a.m.