New Cheers owners honor restaurant’s original menu while building something fresh

Greg Tandy started asking around when he became the new owner of Cheers.

“Everybody that was talking to us was like, ‘I want my favorite salad back,’” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Okay, what is it?’ and they’d say ‘No, that’s what it’s called: My Favorite Salad.’”

He recovered the original recipe for the salad with the help of original owner Doug Milbury. It’s already back on the menu.

Tandy and business partner Scott Austin purchased the restaurant at the end of April, making them the co-owners of four Main Street area mainstays in total, including Vinnie’s Pizzaria, Hermanos Cocina Mexicana and Tandy’s Pub and Grille. As a team, they’ve sought to hone the unique characteristics that made each restaurant a beloved Concord staple and to breathe life back into that.

The moment a well-known restaurant sells, Austin said, people immediately think, “They’re gonna change this, they’re going to change that.” That’s not his or Tandy’s M.O.

“We have the opportunity to put some life back into them, and try to restore them,” he said.

At Vinnie’s, that meant sticking to the original recipe while giving the inside a facelift. At Hermanos, it has meant keeping garlic chicken nachos front and center while working to reduce the wait time that it takes before customers can enjoy them. At Cheers, so far, it has meant getting back to basics.

Austin was a regular customer and good friends with one of the original bartenders at Tandy’s Bar and Grille when he met his future business partner. Five years ago, when a death in that business put the ownership situation on the rocks, Austin bought in, expecting to sell his portion back to Tandy and move on. He never did.

Austin has owned the Vinnie’s property since 2017. During the time it remained closed, he said, calls came in from business owners across the country trying to buy Vinnie’s signature neon sign. He wouldn’t let it go. While it took longer for him to realize than he expected, the vision had always been to reopen Vinnie’s, not to sell it off for parts. Joining forces with Tandy brought that dream to fruition last year.

“If something like Cheers or Hermanos and Vinnie’s are closed,” Austin said, “A lot of what Concord is, we think, would be gone.”

As partners, they’ve always had their eyes out for opportunities to keep growing in downtown, but taking the helm at Hermanos, Vinnie’s and now Cheers has happened faster than either expected. They’re still working on naming the umbrella venture the four staples exist under. While Tandy’s was the seed, their partnership is bigger than that.

At Cheers, they’ve been working to bring back much of Milbury’s original menu using his original recipes. But there are new things, too, including the single loyalty and gift card program that will connect the four restaurants.

Like the refresh that Main Street itself has seen over the last decade, Tandy and Austin are hoping this restoration brings the crowds back.

“Concord’s downtown is actually one of the probably better downtowns in the state. There’s a lot of walking traffic, you’re seeing a lot of other buildings get redeveloped,” Austin said. “Hopefully, we get to be a part of it.”

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.