There’s still one Orange to root for — The Daily Orange! Donate today and help us win College Media Madness.

As soon as Brian Jackson walked into PressRoom Pub, he knew the vibe of the downtown Syracuse eatery was exactly what he’d been looking for.

For a few years, Jackson knew he wanted to run his own bar, just like his father did before he passed away and like his brother currently does in San Diego, California. Jackson had previously looked to potentially run Jack Martin’s Pub & Grill on Butternut Avenue, just north of downtown, but something about PressRoom just felt right.

As a kid, Jackson was a newspaper delivery boy for the Syracuse Post-Standard, and the PressRoom is located in the former Syracuse Herald-Journal building. He has fond childhood memories of big bags of newspapers which he distributed on his bike, earning no more than $20 a week — he remembers his hands being covered in ink when he was finished. On Christmas mornings, the paper’s special edition was so thick, he needed a wheelbarrow to deliver his 100 papers.

Now under new management, the PressRoom has been revamped and “freshened up,” said Jackson, the current operations manager. But the newspaper ties — and the essence of the Syracuse eatery — still remain. The Herald-Journal’s crane that operated paper rolls is still on the ceiling of the main dining room, now decorated with beer taps.

Jackson says his favorite part is the back wall of the bar, which is still covered with Post-Standard newspaper copies of historic events, ranging from when then-President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, to when the Syracuse University men’s basketball team won the national championship in 2003.

“The history of the building is what drew me in,” Jackson said. “It’s kind of neat. It’s nostalgic. That’s the feeling we want to keep.”

In January, PressRoom closed as owner Tom Hornstein cited ongoing pressures from the pandemic, according to syracuse.com. Hornstein posted a listing if someone wanted to buy or lease the bar, located at 220 Herald Place.

That’s where Jackson came in. The Fayetteville-Manlius High School alumnus had never been in the PressRoom before conversations with Hornstein began, but he was immediately hooked.

“As soon as I walked into this place, I felt like, ‘Wow, this is it.’ And so I proceeded and made a deal,” Jackson said.

Immediately after taking over, Jackson orchestrated a significant, six-week remodeling, yet managed to get the PressRoom re-opened by his target date: St. Patrick’s Day. What Jackson said was a “very aggressive” and “stressful” revamp included painters, electricians, plumbers and other contractors.

He reconfigured the bar to make it more functional by moving the taps to the back wall and brought in professional bartenders to make the eatery more upscale. None of the original staff remained after the eatery’s January closing, so he hired entirely new employees that currently include about five bartenders, three or four kitchen staff and five servers.

Kevin Evans, the head chef and kitchen manager, is currently redoing the entire menu. Evans worked at Faegen’s Cafe and Pub on Marshall Street for about 30 years, but when Jackson contacted him about moving to PressRoom, he agreed. Evans’ wife, Cheryl Evans, and his brother, Jeff Evans, joined him and helped undergo an extensive deep-clean of the entire kitchen. Cheryl said the history still remains, but the place looks sharper and cleaner than ever.

So far, they’ve been leaning on weekly special menus, but Evans hopes a permanent menu will be ready soon. Evans said the old menu was too big and felt like it was stuck in the 1990s. He’s working to bring it to the 2020s with specialties like Irish Egg Rolls and the Breezy Blue burger. PressRoom will still be a sports bar, but the two want to use a more upscale menu to attract more young professionals.

Maya Goosman | Digital Design Director

The Irish Egg Rolls were meant to be a one-day special for the restaurant’s soft opening on St. Patrick’s Day, but they were such a big hit that Evans and Jackson decided to keep them. Evans estimates they’ve gone through 100 pounds of egg rolls already.

“The atmosphere here is still the same,” Evans said. “The food is just a little bit upgraded.”

While the soft opening was a success, not everything was completely ready. Jackson said the new, stainless steel bar had just been installed that day, so there were kegs on top of it to ensure the glue dried. But the staff was able to adjust and handle the crowd.

They had a plethora of requests for local beers, and Jackson is working on adding an additional 20 taps to the bar. He says supporting local businesses — including breweries — in the community is crucial. The PressRoom has free parking, so Jackson said he doesn’t mind if customers park in his lot and walk to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, just down the street, instead.

Those same community values extended into last Saturday night, when Jackson agreed to close the restaurant to host a party for 150 employees of St. Joseph’s Hospital. The decision wasn’t easy because the business is just getting started, Jackson said, but it was important to show appreciation for the frontline workers.

“We want to get along because I think it’s good for the community to have successful businesses,” Jackson said. “It’s good for the growth of Syracuse.”

For Jackson, now felt like the right time to start running his own bar. The pandemic felt like it was winding down and people are starting to go out again, making it the perfect time to reunite the public, he said.

“We’re coming out of the pandemic, why not get off on the ground floor and work your way up?” Evans said of his and Jackson’s mindset.

Jackson still has his day job as a network engineer for a ticketing company. The last few months haven’t included much sleep — last Saturday, he arrived at 8 a.m. to start work after staying until closing at 2 a.m. on Friday night. He said he lays awake at night too, thinking about the items that remain on his PressRoom mental checklist.

Before opening last Saturday, Evans and Jackson sat on two stools and soaked in what Evans calls “the quiet before the storm.” They explained that they want the PressRoom to be “our last rodeo,” with the goal being to retire in about 10 years. But for now, they know there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Jackson laughed as he recalled the six weeks of revamping that led up to opening day. He estimated that he probably walked 40,000 steps per day in the PressRoom alone, yet he joked that he still gained weight because Evans’ food is so good.

“It’s more family based,” Evans said of the environment. “Our family blends in with Brian’s family, and then we become one big family.”

Published on March 30, 2022 at 12:31 am

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16