A group of downtown restaurateurs have purchased J.O.B. Public House, Primetime bar and the two apartments above the restaurants.
Chris and Nicole Brown, owners of The MudLounge, along with Clayton and Anne Baker, owners of Finnegan’s Wake, Civil Kitchen and Tinga Tacos, closed on the purchase Dec. 29, Chris Brown said.
The group purchased the J.O.B. business and the buildings that previously housed J.O.B. and Primetime bar, located at 315 to 319 E. Walnut St., Brown said. The buildings also include two apartments upstairs. Brown declined to disclose the purchase prices for the business or the buildings.
“We really felt that J.O.B. and what [the previous owner] and his coworkers and team had created over the years was such an asset to downtown,” Brown said. “It was a terrible loss” when it closed.
Re-open J.O.B. ‘in the spirit that it was’
The new owners plan to reopen J.O.B. sometime between mid-February and mid-March 2024, Brown said.
“We’d like to open up J.O.B. in the spirit that it was, as a whiskey bar with good late night food,” Brown said. The new owners will “probably scale back the menu just a little bit so that we can make sure we can execute several good items.”
That means customers can expect to find some of the J.O.B./Grad School classics, such as the Full Ride, a double-bacon cheeseburger with soft cheddar. The new owners also plan to add some whiskey-inspired cocktails to the J.O.B. drink menu, Brown said.
For the time being, the building that previously housed Primetime will be used for staging and to hold all of the memorabilia from the previous owner, who “was a collector of all,” Brown said.
Plans for the Primetime side of the business are still being developed, Brown said.
“If we can reopen it up as game-bar or some other similar concept, once that time comes up, we’ll do it,” Brown said. “But we’re not 100% set on what we’re doing to the other side.”
J.O.B. history
Launched in 2010, J.O.B. Public House quickly became a downtown-staple, thanks in part to the success of owner Danny Schlink. Nicknamed the “Red Dragon” for his fierce character and red hair, Schlink was a magnate of Springfield’s restaurant and bar scene in the 2010s.
J.O.B., known for having the largest selection of whiskey in Springfield. It launched two years after Schlink’s first restaurant, Grad School.
Grad School was known for its late night grub, like the famous Full Ride burger, the Rasta Pasta, a penne with spicy marinara and jerk-style meat and Micah’s Chicken, a breaded and fried chicken served with rice.
In 2021, the landlord of Grad School’s building sold the property, which was later demolished for the expansion of the apartment complex Vue on Walnut Street. Schlink moved a majority of Grad School’s menu to J.O.B. that year and combined the businesses.
J.O.B. closed following the sudden and unexpected death of Schlink in late-2022, according to previous reporting. He owned J.O.B. and Primetime bar at the time of his death.
‘Great neighbors’ on Walnut Street
The Browns purchased the MudLounge in 2018 from Mudhouse owners Rob Weislocher and Brian King, Brown said. Brown did not disclose the purchase price. The Browns rent the building, located at 321 E. Walnut Street, from owner Ralph Plank.
From his time managing MudLounge, which is next door to J.O.B., Chris Brown got know Schlink well, he said.
“We were great neighbors. We helped each other out all the time,” Brown said.
“We sat on the back patio over closure and COVID, and just talked about the end of the world and[…] how we were going to get through it all,” Brown said.
The plan to purchase Schlink’s former business has been in the works for about six months, Brown said. Keeping most, if not all, of the memorabilia is a bit of a tribute to Schlink, he said.
Rich history in downtown Springfield
The building that houses J.O.B. was constructed in 1905, according to records from the Walnut Street Historic Commercial District. Before Schlink purchased the building in the late 2010s, it housed a number of bars and restaurants, most notably Harpo’s and The Antler, Brown said.
The Browns and the Bakers purchased the entities from Five-Hit, LLC, registered to Squibb Law Firm, according to the Missouri Secretary of State records. Five-Hit, LLC was the corporation Schlink used for his business affairs.
The first building, 315 to 317 E. Walnut, had a total appraised value of $271,400 in early 2023, according to Greene County Assessor’s Office records. The neighboring building, 319 E. Walnut, had a total appraised value of $236,500 in early 2023, according to assessor’s records.
