A staff member cleans the windows at The Snug, a bar in Portland’s East End, on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
A new sports bar will open in Portland’s East End, where The Snug is closing.
Sacha Salzberg, Evan Carroll and Ian Daly hope Jerome will be up and running in January. Their focus will be New England sports broadcasts, but visitors will also find snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing on the TVs. The partners said they saw a void when Rivalries closed its Portland location in February 2022.
“There’s a need for a sports bar in Portland,” Daly said. “It’s just a bar I’d like to hang out at.”
Margaret Lyons, owner of The Snug, announced on social media Wednesday that she will be closing the longtime Irish pub on Congress Street. She said she met with “three wonderful people” with plans for the space, but did not divulge details.
“They have a new look, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to love what they’re doing!” Lyons wrote on Instagram.
Jerome’s is named after Daly’s father, a huge sports fan who died when Daly was 13 years old. The owners said in their liquor license application cover letter that they will offer a full bar and a small menu of cold sandwiches, salads and snacks. They plan to work Thursday through Monday.
“We hope our aesthetic and management approach will connect the East End neighborhood with New England’s pro-sports culture, Maine’s outdoor adventure culture, and urban boarding culture in an atmosphere that welcomes everyone to ‘be who you are.’ , Salzberg wrote in the letter.
Salzberg and Carol, who are married with two children, own a local architecture firm. Salzberg and Daly have bartended together in the past.
“We know we all work well together and each of us has a different skill set that lends itself to doing something like this,” Salzberg said.
All partners live within walking distance of the bar. Salzberg and Carroll previously worked at a nearby architecture firm when The Snug first opened in 2006, and said it was a favorite gathering place at the end of the day.
“We were lucky that The Snug didn’t open until 5 p.m.,” Carroll joked, otherwise their work would never have finished on time.
The partners said they like that The Snug is a neighborhood spot and want to keep it that way.
“We want it to be a place that if a tourist hears about it, they learn about it from a local,” Daly said. “We want it to be local first and tourist second.”
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