Pottstown >> For nearly 10 years, the corner of High and Hanover streets has been a dining destination – the home of the Brick House restaurant and bar.
Driving the success of the business at 152 E. High St. is husband-and-wife team Dave and Blair Walsh.
“The Brick House is here for the community – you are a guest in our house,” Dave Walsh said. “We present ourselves as a place that is solid that will always be here and that will endure the test of time. Even the name Brick House – it will not move and will endure everything thrown at it.”
The idea for the Brick House actually started well before its opening. The couple reminisced recently about what it took to get the business in operation and how things have gone over the past 10 years. They agree that there have been challenges and “huge sacrifices.”
“The things we have accomplished – we’ve done with major stresses on our shoulders. At the end of the day, we made it through everything,” said Dave Walsh.
One thing that quickly becomes clear in talking with the couple – they are a team that is in synch. In conversation they finish each other’s thoughts and smoothly expand on the other’s ideas. Each brings strengths that lend themselves to different aspects of running a business.
“We’re such a good team because we define our hats – which makes us work together. We respect each other,” Blair Walsh said.
Dave Walsh had worked in the restaurant industry from the time he was a teenager. It was when he was studying computer programming at the Chubb Institute that he began bartending “and fell in love with it and with the business.” From that point on, he moved from bartending to management and general management.
Blair Walsh said that while she worked in the restaurant industry while a student – it wasn’t her focus. She built a career in the corporate world, and holds two bachelor’s and two master’s degrees. Both held full-time corporate jobs while they were launching the Brick House.
The couple met 15 years ago, and decided that instead of working for others, they would try their hand at owning their own restaurant. They began looking for a space, but Dave Walsh – who grew up in North Coventry – wanted to be in Pottstown.
They looked at a number of buildings before seeing the High Street location – the site of the former Security Trust building.
The couple negotiated a lease deal with the owner of the building and set a date of March 2007 to open. They put plans together and took out loans to get the business going.
“We were paying $26,000 per month living in our little condo in Royersford. We were working full-time jobs and fitting out the space,” Blair Walsh said.
They hired a staff in the months leading up to the planned opening date – which came and went. The Brick House opened one year later – in March 2008.
When the Brick House opened in 2008, Dave Walsh said it “started and then just didn’t stop.”
“It was a blur for about four years – seven-days-a-week, 20-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.,” Blair Walsh added.
“Part of it was the need in the community for a restaurant,” Dave Walsh said. “But people wanted to be part of it. We believed in the community and the community believed in us. That’s what made the difference.”
“This is a true American dream, our story,” Blair Walsh added.
When the Brick House opened, there really wasn’t anything else like it in Pottstown, according to Dave Walsh.
Asked whether the Brick House paved the way for other restaurants like it, Blair Walsh said, “we took away the question of whether or not it could happen – we made it safer for others to do it.”
From the beginning, the business model for the Brick House was to provide value – with food cooked fresh for a reasonable price.
“We weren’t looking at how much money we could make off of one plate, we were looking at ‘what can we offer people so that they will want to come back a few times,'” Blair Walsh said.
Dave Walsh said the numbers for the business are consistent, something he attributes to the deep ties the couple has in the community. But that’s not the only reason, according to Blair Walsh.
“Quarterly we’re looking at numbers and we adjust them immediately,” she said. “I think that by adjusting immediately, it creates more stability over the long term.”
She added that all of the loans the company took out to get the business underway 10 years ago have been paid off, and that has resulted in menu prices being lowered 10 percent.
Dave Walsh said the secret to their success is the fact that they are real people.
“We’re not investors throwing money into something hoping to get a return. Our blood, sweat and tears are here. At the end of the day we promise we’ll do everything we can. It might not always be perfect, but we’re going to try. We always want you to have a great experience,” he said.
When they talk about the future, the couple agrees that they are open to adding a second Brick House location. For now, however, Walsh said he wants to encourage people who have never tried the Brick House or who may not have liked their initial experience, to come back.
“It might be worth a second look – everything has changed, but the mission remains the same,” he said.
In September 2013, the couple opened another restaurant/bar/entertainment venue – BlackJax American Pub and Grill on Route 422 in Amity Township.
For more information about the Brick House visit www.pottstownbrickhouse.com or www.facebook.com/TheBrickHousePottstown .
