Wild Bill's credits customers, no big changes with success

In their first year in business in downtown Cheney, the owners of Wild Bill's Long Bar decided to subscribe to some old-fashioned notions.

One is that there is no need to reinvent the wheel, and the second is that there is a great deal of knowledge to be learned from the customer, Greg Hubbard and Charlie Witte said.

While an adjacent watering hole - the former Asylum and Goofy's - sits vacant and in the process of being remodeled for a future bar, sales are up 52 percent from a year ago, Witte said.

On Feb. 1, Wild Bill's passed the one-year mark under the new ownership of Hubbard and Witte. And part of the success the first-time bar owners saw came from keeping the institution of Cheney's oldest bar much like generations of residents have come to know.

"We pretty much just updated it," Hubbard said. They took the same basic age-old theme of trophy game animals heads hanging on the wall and cleaned the rest up.

The deck in the back was expanded. "That was something everyone enjoyed last year," Hubbard said.

"We made it more current," Witte said. "We have the TVs and stuff that the younger people want to compete with sports bars," Hubbard added.

The bar provides an atmosphere and a reason to come into Cheney for that drink after work. "We feel we didn't really steal business from anyone else, but we actually captured business that was going elsewhere, outside of Cheney, spilling over to casinos or to Spokane," Witte said.

"Ultimately, that's our goal to create not only a nice bar, but a nice downtown experience," Hubbard said.

Next step is to offer an expanded food menu from space they also purchased to the west, adding to the taco and hot dog fare presently on the menu. When that happens is all dependent on when the permits arrive, Hubbard said. He calls it an "Elevated twist on pub fare."

The goal is not to be a destination for a restaurant, but be a bar that offers really good food, Witte said.

"We don't necessarily want you here for dinner, but if you're here for a drink and you want something to eat that is really good, we want to be able to offer that, too," Witte said.

Playing the part of the good neighbor was also part of the recipe for success. "I think our biggest surprise was how well we connected with the locals," Witte said.

The overall sense of community, their effort to give back to the community, is one thing Witte said was a crucial element in their success.

"We became a major sponsor of the (Cheney) Rodeo," Witte said. Wild Bill's has conducted fundraisers for a variety of groups including the athletic training department at Eastern Washington University and the rodeo club on campus.

The owners' generosity is returned in ways they do not even know both Hubbard and Witte agreed.

Was there something that slapped them up against the head and was an eye-opening surprise? Hubbard and Witte pondered that for a moment.

"That's tough one," Hubbard said. "The year has shown a lot of positive and Charlie and I just grabbed onto that," Hubbard said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].