Just a day after her 38th birthday, Savannah Smith will officially become an entrepreneur.

She and her fiance, Scott Saak, are the co-owners of the new Sugar Daddies Restaurant & Bar, located at 960 North Sturgeon Street in Montgomery City. The grand opening is scheduled for Friday.

“I’m excited for it,” Saak said. “I’m looking forward to getting it open. Hopefully, it does well. We put a lot of time into it.”

Smith and Saak took over a place that used to be AJ’s Grindstone Restaurant and Bar before it closed during the winter. James and Angie Hunt owned the place for four years before selling the building to Smith and Saak in May.

“We kind of talked back and forth about how neat it would be to run a place like this,” Smith said. “When we found out it was up for sale, she (Angie Hunt) knew we were interested. So she got a hold of us whenever somebody else made an offer for it. We had to snag it up.”

Smith grew up in Bellflower. She has lived in Montgomery County for about six years. She worked at New Florence Wood Products for 19 years before quitting in May.

Both Smith and Saak – a longtime county resident – will run a business for the first time.

“It’s new to both of us, but we’re figuring it out as we go,” said Smith, who once operated Domino’s in Montgomery City for a year. “We got a lot of friends who did stuff like this before and they helped us a lot with getting vendors and getting everything ready.”

Smith said she named the restaurant after Saak.

“We had a couple of vendors whenever we were calling about food and stuff,” Smith said. “They were like, ‘Is this like a bakery or something?’ I said, ‘No, it’s a restaurant and bar.’”

The restaurant will serve food items such as burgers, shrimp tacos and pulled pork tacos. It will also serve specials on Fridays and Saturdays and breakfast on the weekends. The building has been decorated with vintage signs.

“We just want to make the community happy and give them a nice place to come out and eat and maybe have a few drinks on the weekends,” Smith said. “We really don’t want this to be the hangout bar, where everyone stays out all night and gets rowdy. We want to focus more on the food and make sure the food is good.”

When the Hunts operated AJ’s, they added a non-smoking dining room and an 1,100 square foot outdoor patio. The restaurant also held pool tournaments on Wednesdays.

“The old owners did a lot of work,” Smith said. “When we used to hang out here when it was AJ’s, we really liked everything they did in here. They set it up pretty nice, especially the kitchen and everything. It was very efficient for everybody.”

Smith said the patio will be a non-smoking area and will include cornhole and washers.

“We were going to make it non-smoking anyway, but that’s the county ordinance now,” she said. “For any new business, you can’t have smoking inside.”

The restaurant will have up to 11 employees. That includes Smith and Saak, three bartenders and three cooks. Three of Smith’s daughters will also help.
Still, the owners are looking for more kitchen help. Anyone who is interested in working can call Smith at 636-485-7927.

“I have three really awesome cooks, but on the weekends, I’m going to need two people in the kitchen for breakfast and two people in the kitchen for lunch and dinner,” Smith said.

Smith said the restaurant held a soft opening on Aug. 23. The owners invited some family members, friends and other community residents.

“We had them come in and we worked with our crew,” Smith said. “We got the cooks in the kitchen and the bartenders and waitresses. So we kind of got that real stressful part out of the way. We found a couple of glitches, things that we need to work on and need to fix before our opening. I’m excited for the grand opening. I was super nervous for the soft opening, but I’m a little bit at ease now that I kind of know what to expect at the grand opening.”