Rocky Hill watering hole is both new and very familiar

Rocky Hill Pub opens at site of former Washington Street Station.

By: Kara Fitzpatrick
   ROCKY HILL — The establishment known formerly — and dearly by some — as the Washington Street Station has officially been transformed into the Rocky Hill Pub as of last month. The freshly renovated pub will replace a borough fixture that thrived for decades.
   The Station, as it was commonly known, was owned for 16 years by Rocky Hill residents John and Rosemary Samus. It was taken over by Dewey Enterprises in September. The doors to the town staple never closed, but renovations, totaling $100,000, began in the fall. On Dec. 1, the old sign was replaced with one that now reads Rocky Hill Pub.
   The refurbished building on Washington Street offers an intimate dining and socializing climate, said general manager Victoria Bleacher, serving traditional pub food — pizza, hamburgers, french fries and the like.
   "We’re as traditional as we could get with pub food," said Ms. Bleacher, a cousin of Dewey Enterprise partner Gary Bleacher. "The point was to be simple and reasonable and good."
   Renovations include painting, fresh parking lot paving and interior touchups. The red carpet lining that once covered the Station’s walls has also been removed — but not forgotten. A small square of the fluffy maroon substance remains pinned at the end of the bar. New stools were purchased, said Ms. Bleacher, and a portion of the wooden bar trimmed so that patrons have a bit more leg room.
   The sprucing up has paid off, said Ms. Bleacher. Business, she said, has been "excellent." The real charm of the restaurant is the bar — which, "for the most part, has really taken off," she said.
   But there is more work to be done.
   A mural of the borough as it looked during the early 1900s is planned for the dining room wall. The painting of the mural, to be done by a Kendall Park artist, will likely begin shortly, said Ms. Bleacher.
   "We need to do a little bit more research and take some pictures of the buildings that are still standing from that time," said Ms. Bleacher.
   The atmosphere inside the pub — how it exists now and what it will shape up to be — is "warm and comfortable," said Ms. Bleacher. "We have a group of regulars that are just really nice people."
   Only some of those regulars have carried over from the former Station, Ms. Bleacher believes.
   But, more so than ever, Ms. Bleacher said the establishment hopes to become just as important in the fabric of the small borough.
   "We’d like (the Rocky Hill Pub) to become part of the town. For the area, it’s … one of a kind — on the smaller side, but comfortable."