- April 26, 2024
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Bill Fletcher often ends conversations by saying "Slainte" — Cheers in Irish.
But the word celebrates a new beginning for the Ormond Beach business owner as it stands written on the sign of the new Fletcher’s Irish Pub and Brewery at 754 Ridgewood Ave. Fletcher’s second location spans 5,000 square feet, and for the past three months, he and his family have been hard at work performing renovations and making plans to open sometime in mid-April.
They're not in any rush though; Fletcher said they want to make sure this location reflects the quality of the original in Ormond Beach.
"It's huge," he said. "It's flattering. It's humbling. We started this 15 years ago originally as a cigar bar ... and it's evolved into what we are today. I think we're probably the strongest Irish or Celtic brand in Volusia County."
Fletcher’s Cigar Bar opened in 2007 at 1220 Hand Ave. Originally meant as a place the Fletchers would like to hang out in town, it later morphed into Fletcher’s Irish pub and then became a restaurant when they moved to the pub to the current location at 393 W. Granada Blvd. about five years ago.
And now Fletcher's second location will eventually have a little something extra: a brewery.
"So we're talking about next year, we'll be adding our own beer brand," Fletcher said. "So it's definitely exciting."
He's no brewmaster, at least not yet, but he's looking forward to getting creative and seeing what they can come up with.
In a time when many businesses are still struggling with the aftermath of the pandemic in terms of staffing and patrons, Fletcher attributes his restaurant's resiliency to remaining consistent: Making sure hours remain the same, and being willing to pitch in whenever needed so that the quality remains the same.
"More than anything, I'd say consistency is probably the number one factor of us surviving and thriving, frankly," Fletcher said. "Because we just stay on track and we just keep plugging through."
There are a lot of perks to running a local restaurant beyond monetary successes though, he added. One of them has been seeing his family grow alongside the business.
His daughter just turned 15 years old, and she now works as a server at Fletcher's. His two sons are often seen bussing tables, washing dishes and helping out in the kitchen.
"They're as known as everybody else in there," he said. "And they're hard workers."
For the past two years, Fletcher has also started a vlog, or video blog, on his Facebook page called Beer and Shot where he talks about upcoming charity events, things happening in the community and the occasional (or frequent, depending on who you ask) dad joke. It's something that he started during the restaurant shutdowns due to the pandemic as a way to stay positive.
"It's a fun little thing that we started doing, and it's definitely been beneficial — for people getting to see a face with the brand, so to speak, and understand really what we're about," he said.
