Winchester to create additional liquor license for possible restaurant

By Editor | May 10, 2023 |

By Carmen Ensinger

The Winchester City Council agreed to make an additional liquor license available for use by an individual who is interested in purchasing the old Buck and Jo’s Restaurant at their May 3 council meeting.

Mayor Rex McIntire said that Real Estate Agent Darrell Moore introduced him to Ron Lacy, who is interested in opening a restaurant in Winchester.

“One of the conditions he wants, though, is to have a liquor license,” McIntire said. “And I can understand that, because whether you believe in drinking or not, because for a lot of people it is kind of important to be able to order a drink with their meal.”

McIntire said he asked him quite a few questions.

“He comes from a family that owns several restaurants already,” McIntire said. “So they are not new to the game. One thing I did ask him. I said, ‘so, I’m assuming you are going to want gaming?’ and he said no. He said it is not even on their agenda now, which I was happy to hear.”

Moore said he seemed legitimate to him.

“He approached me about a month ago and I didn’t really know much about him but I started doing some research,” he said. “He has a lot of irons in the fire – a lot of them in the restaurant business. He is trying to keep his family going. He has some relations in the online auction business. I understand he worked with four or five restaurants in the Jacksonville area and he is not afraid to tackle projects. He bought a place in Branson even.”

Moore went on to say that Lacy pretty much purchases businesses to keep his family employed.

“He is trying to keep everyone in his family in business,” Moore said. “He has a sister who wants to own her own restaurant so she would be the one who would be running it.”

Moore said he had a good feeling about him.

“He is not a fly-by-night type of guy,” he said. “He is going to try to get something going back in our community. I am approached daily about someone getting this restaurant back open and it would be nice to have a family restaurant back in the area. He insinuated to me that he doesn’t want any kind of bar atmosphere, either.”

After talking with him, McIntire said he was impressed with him.

“He comes with a pretty good resume of experience, which is something the last owners didn’t have,” he said. “Like you said, It is a tough business and hard to find someone wanting to take a chance. I think he is willing to talk to us. I’m sure the Burk family want to get it sold. It is not a guarantee at this point – negotiations haven’t even started – but he wanted to cross that first hurdle.”

One thing McIntire really liked about the prospective restaurant was the proposed menu.

“He did say he wanted to have full steak dinners,” he said. “The only thing that bothered me about him was the hours. He was not going to be open every day – only Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. He is going to miss a great opportunity to draw in the breakfast crowd. I did like the idea he was talking about having a full menu – not just hamburgers and cheeseburgers. I also told him Sunday about be an idea day for him – he would catch a lot of people after church.”

Moore said he thought he would listen to the community.

Rather than going ahead and creating the license now, the council decided to make the motion to make the license available if and when he purchases the restaurant.

Alderwoman Terri Gregory made the motion, which was seconded by Alderman Bill Jacquot. Alderwoman Sandy Long had submitted her resignation so she was not in attendance and Alderman Lawrence Coultas was absent. Alderman Ron Bell voted no and Alderman Jeff Pittman said, “personally I’m saying no but for the sake of the community I’m saying yes.” The motion passed by a margin of 3-1.