Since 1843, the Jennings House on North Chestnut Street has been the home of several restaurants in Ravenna. The newest eatery, the White House Tavern sports bar, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Thursday afternoon.
“I think that it is great because Preston Stewart and Joshua Smith seem young and vibrant, wanting to get things reinvigorated and they have a good understanding of what it takes to run a business,” Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ryann Cline told The Weekly Villager. “I feel very confident that they will be here and be successful and a part of the community for a long time.”
Both Smith and Stewart are graduates of Kent Roosevelt High School and have been best friends since their school days. After graduating from high school, they went their separate ways in business but have reunited to open their first eatery.
“We have pretty much talked about it for a long time for years,” Smith said. “Preston started the roofing company around the time I was becoming a real estate agent. We are doing well for ourselves, and we thought, let’s get into it.”
For the last three years, Stewart has owned Precision Roofing Contractors of America, a roofing contracting business while Smith created Re/Max Diversity, a real estate business where he operates as real estate agent/broker.
Smith added that the pair have been self-starters since their school days, having owned a leave-raking and snow-shoveling business.
Although they went their separate ways in business, they remained close and one of their favorite things to do when they got together was spend time at a sports bar.
“We are big sports guys,” Smith said. “Any time he and I want to debrief at the end of the day, we end up going to a sports bar and will just have a beer and burger and call it a night.”
According to Smith, they had discussed going into business together for several years and opportunity knocked when local multi-business owner Jermaine Justice, helped put Stewart in touch with the owner of the Jennings House.
“We had always joked about do you want to own a bar one day and a spot to hang out with all of our friends,” Smith noted. “We thought what are different ways, we can hang out and have a social life and benefit from it.”
They agreed to a lease with owner of the Jennings House and have been open for the last three months.
“With my real estate background, the older the home the more stable the bones,” Smith said.
Stewart acknowledged that opening a new eatery in the middle of winter has been challenging.
“It is hard to open a restaurant in the middle of winter especially when we have our own businesses,” he said. “We are working around it and hoping we can make it work.”
As the weather begins to turn, the Kent Roosevelt graduates are aiming to make sure that the White House Tavern becomes a popular hangout this summer.
Current menu items consist of bar food, including mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, mac ‘n’ cheese bits, chicken sandwiches and popcorn chicken, but plan to expand the menu especially in the next month.
Very little remodeling was needed when they opened the bar, and Stewart said they made changes as they went along. The most significant additions being a pool table in one of the rooms, a dart board, and TouchTunes, an interactive music platform, with more on the way. They plan to bring install an ATM machine in the bar soon and also a KENO lottery machine.
Smith also said that they hope to have some work done on the patio outside by extending it to the edge of the parking lot so they can build a stage and have customers come and relax and listen to some live music.
The duo acknowledged that they have limited experience in the restaurant business, with Smith’s only experience coming from working in a Wendy’s in high school and Stewart previously owning a share in Justice’s recently opened YOI Hibachi Express and have relied on the experience of their staff to help ease the transition.
“Our staff they help out a lot and understand we are a new bar,” Smith said. “We have experienced bartenders and cooks that can give us recommendations or just help along the way if needed.”
While the White House Tavern is still in its early days, Stewart said that new sports bar’s best days are still to come, especially when the summer rolls around.
