The Beginning.

If there is one thing I retained from my Anthropology degree from the University of Oregon, you can’t understand  where you are, or where you are going, if you don’t know where you’ve been.  So it seems only necessary that in order to discuss the present, and especially the future, that there be a  brief exploration of The One Horse’s past.

In 2006 my then husband Vince Taggart and myself decided to buy a commercial property in the town of Gaston, Oregon.  The building was old and run down and was the home of a tavern called Crickett’s.  At the time we assumed that we would own the property and rent to the present tenants and eventually we would renovate the property and open our own restaurant/ bar.  As it happened, the occupants of this property were looking to retire and once they realized  we were not interested in purchasing their business as well as the property they decided to close shop.

It soon became clear that we may have bitten off a little more than we could chew at the time but we didn’t hesitate.  We jumped right in and began stripping the place from ceiling to floor. Not only was Vince  a skilled bartender but it turned out that he was a pretty handy carpenter. My mom and I cleaned and painted while Vince did a lot of the heavy lifting – he installed new windows (all the old ones were broken or boarded up), built a new bar, a kitchen and mop room and more.  When needed the professionals stepped in and upgraded the plumbing, electrical, and installed new kitchen and bar equipment.  Six long months later and many trips to the dump, the place really looked good, the business licenses were in place, the food and bar were stocked and on January 8, 2007 The One Horse Tavern opened its doors.

 Among the first of many mistakes we made was NOT making a big deal about our opening.  Countless others include things like not reaching our more to the local community to introduce ourselves, in fact, doing little to no marketing at all for the first year or so.  Needless to say, it was a lean year and the only reason The One Horse is still here is to the countless hours that Vince and myself logged in behind the bar to keep employee costs down.  By 2008 our reputation was spreading as a place where you could get good food and a cocktail – not just beer and wine anymore.  The biggest battle that we had to overcome was convincing the community that this tired old building could actually be cleaned up to feel comfortable and safe.  To this day I still see customers who have not been in our bar yet with a story of how they hadn’t been in here for 15 years and they can’t believe it is so different.

My son Austin was born in June 2007, six months after we opened.  The stress on our family was tremendous and the realization that Vince and I had taken on too much too fast in our short marriage came too late and the options for alleviating any of our responsibilities seemed limited and few.  We divorced last year and now I am running the bar alone.  It hasn’t been easy, especially with a crappy economy.  2009 and 2010 were fairly lean years but The One Horse has positive, forward momentum and we all (employees, customers, and myself) have high hopes that 2011 is going to see this little bar on its feet and live up to  its full potential.