After nine years in business, Finley’s Tap House served its final customers on Sunday, with owner Jordan Blevins announcing on Facebook that the restaurant and craft beer bar would be permanently closed as of May 11.
But don’t expect the Finley’s location at 3236 Ginger Creek Drive to stay quiet for long. Blevins already is working on another dining concept that he plans to open in the same spot, and, in fact, the new bar and grill will be called The Spot.
Blevins hopes to open The Spot 90’s Bar and Grill sometime in early June. The Spot will be ‘90s themed, with bright-colored décor featuring movies, musicians and sports stars from the 1990s. Blevins said customers will be “hit with nostalgia” upon entering.
“We’re switching gears and going more bar and grill, which is what Springfield wants,” he said.
The Spot’s menu will feature bar and grill classics, including pizzas, but will carry on the Finley’s Tap Room focus on fresh ingredients.
“We want to still elevate the food and keep things fresh but get the price point down so we’ll be able to compete with the bars and grills that are around us,” Blevins said.
Finley’s Tap Room opened in 2017. Blevins said the COVID-19 pandemic hit the restaurant industry hard, and business had not rebounded back to pre-pandemic levels.
Blevins, who also is part owner of a restaurant in the Phoenix area, said he had been brainstorming with Finley’s general manager and his partner in the Phoenix restaurant for the past few months about ideas for a new restaurant concept for the Finley’s space, and they landed on a ‘90s theme.
“A lot of restaurants don’t make it past the first couple years,” Blevins said. “When you get to year five or six, it’s usually time to call it quits or come up with a new idea. I took the approach of coming up with a new idea.”