The second leg of our road trip ends up in Dumont. Everybody out at the Dumont Bar and Grill!
Lori Nelson and Cathy Coates greet us as we walk in and immediately you feel at home. Is it because Lori and Cathy are sisters? And guests feel like family?
The Dumont Bar and Grill is the town’s gathering place, Lori says. “This place brings the town back to life,” she says, noting that the former Dumont Dugout Bar had been closed for six years!
Six years is a long time for a small town to go without an unofficial gathering place, without a place to grab a burger and fry. Lori says townspeople hoped someone would reopen the bar for a long time. “We looked at the place for many years,” she admits. “I even looked at buying it ten years ago.”
So who would take on the project and bring new life to the town? The hope that someone would open the place became for sisters Lori and Cathy, along with Lori’s husband Leland, “why don’t we open the place?” When some city council people caught wind of the notion, they were so “happy that we were thinking about it.”
The trio of owners did more than think about it. If locals and the city council were happy the sisters and Leland were thinking about it, imagine their delirium when it became reality!
Let the Work Begin
A lot of thought and planning went into the new Dumont Bar and Grill. Lori owned a gas station in Wheaton, so she brought a business background to the project.
Cathy is a jack of all trades and knows all about hard work from living on a farm. What did you get out of this project, Cathy? “Sore feet,” she laughs.
“People are very supportive. We have loyal customers and when we had to close for COVID, people said they missed coming here,” Cathy said.
Lori agrees. “People here are so great,” she said. The Dumont Bar and Grill has already made an impact and if you come back this way the last Saturday before Christmas, you’ll experience the Dumont Dazzle Parade.
The Dumont Dazzle Parade went from 16 parade entries in 2018 to 21 last year. Suddenly the area has a new tradition to get people out of their winter homes. In fact, keep an eye on the Dumont Bar and Grill because the owners are always thinking outside the box.
It’s just what you do in small towns, right?
“We love small town living. There’s nothing better,” Lori said.
