When Roger and Kimberly Miller decided to open the Drinking Horn Bar and Grill at 210 West Hudson in Wellsville last summer, they had to accomplish a major task – fix up the building.

“When we first came in here, we couldn’t even walk in the door,” Roger said. “The floors and a lot of areas in the building were falling through. There were water leaks under the building. We remodeled the apartment upstairs. There were six leaks up there. We couldn’t even get power or gas over here until we put a new meter box in and disconnect outside.”

Now, the building has been remodeled into a bar with two pool tables, a dart machine and a bowling machine for Wellsville area residents to enjoy. The Millers also live in the remodeled apartment upstairs.

“When we walked into this building, we could have just turned around and walked out like other people did because there was too much work,” Roger said. “We started doing the mission. We don’t like to fail. When we start something, we like to finish.”

Roger said the next mission is to add a kitchen. No liquor can be served at the bar until a kitchen is built. According to the Wellsville city ordinance, a business must have 50 percent food sales to have liquor.

“We still have a lot of hard work to do to get the kitchen up and operating, but once we can eat out of it, then we can serve people out of it,” Roger said.

The bar, which used to be Louie’s Bar and Grill, has been open for business since Jan. 5. The following day, it had a singing performance from Wes Duncan.

“It was really cool to see them relive years ago when it used to be (Louie’s) and they never thought it was going to come back, so they were super excited,” Kimberly said.

Roger said since its opening, the business has been getting plenty of compliments from the Wellsville community.

“We heard great things,” he said. “They’re happy for us to be here. They can’t wait for the kitchen to be open. We can’t either because we can’t wait to serve them food. When it’s ready, it’s ready.”

Roger has been living in Missouri since 2001 and retired from the U.S. Army in 2013. Kimberly is a West Alton native who managed Fastlane in Troy and Jonesburg. Both operated the Hobo Bar and Grill in Laddonia before opening the Drinking Horn in Wellsville.

“We’ve been running and working together ever since we’ve been together from day one,” Roger said. “We’ve been doing something. We planned a wedding, took trips to Florida and did the Hobo bar for six months. So we have been busy running ever since we’ve been together.”

The Drinking Horn Bar and Grill is named after the Millers’ Nordic heritage. When the Millers got married in 2022, they gave the guests drinking horns at their wedding party.

The Drinking Horn is open from 3 p.m.-11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It hosted its first pool tournament on Jan. 18. It will also have a tribute room for veterans.

“We definitely need to make plans to hold bike events for Honor Flight since Roger is a veteran,” Kimberly said. “Once the kitchen gets going, we’ll be offering 10 percent to all military, active duty veterans and first responders.”

Nick Miller, who is Kimberly’s son, is part of the staff as he works as the cook. He has high hopes that the business will succeed.

“As our saying goes, we’re going to do well in Wellsville,” Nick said.