Let’s find out about Wells Tavern…again

[Eric Rice]: Hey everybody, welcome to Let’s Be Blunt, a podcast about living and loving everything Blunt County, Tennessee.
[Brett Heppner]: We’re your hosts, Brett Heppner and Eric Rice, the Property Dads at Lecompte Realty, and we’re excited to talk more about this great place we call home. So this is a little different. we after the after the regular recorded intro, we don’t usually come on and just be me and you.
[Eric Rice]: No.
[Brett Heppner]: But we’re going to try something new this week.
[Eric Rice]: That’s right. something old and something new. and so about a year ago, we spoke with Alice Basler, who is the proprietor, owner, founder, co-founder, co-owner of Wells Tavern in downtown Maryville. And they are very close to opening. but we thought it would be good to go back because we like to, hey, let’s go back.
[Brett Heppner]: That’s what we do.
[Eric Rice]: And that’s right. And so we thought it would be good to go back and listen to what Alice had to say about a year ago about the opening of Wells Tavern and give folks the opportunity to listen again for the very first time.
[Brett Heppner]: That’s right. So I think September 19th is the official open date, so here’s what she had to say about what’s about to be open.
[Eric Rice]: Okay, here we go. Let’s be blunt let’s be blunt with a very special guest, a special in everyone’s eyes but especially my eyes because good friend of mine and the co-owner of the new Wells Tavern downtown Maryville. I mean, we’re just busting at the seams in Maryville. But Alice Basler, thanks for joining us here on Let’s Be Blunt and we’re really excited to talk to you today.
[Alice Bassler]: Thank you. I’m super excited to talk to you.
[Eric Rice]: It’s this has been we’re gonna get to the the bar but we’re sitting in this bar and pub. Let’s call it a pub. Yeah, let’s let’s call it a pub. And we this has been a long time in the making. but it is looking so good. I wish everybody could see it. But I also wish they could have seen it when it got started because that is the the the big change has been from where it was to what it is now.
[Brett Heppner]: Have you taken pictures?
[Alice Bassler]: Yes. Yeah, not as many as I should. But I probably need to catch up on doing that.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, we can relate.
[Brett Heppner]: It’s still… to the picture. I mean, to be honest, has a little work to be done here.
[Eric Rice]: yeah. Yeah, there’s the thing. But seriously, I mean like if if you’d have seen it the first time we walked in and just I was a little nervous. Were you nervous?
[Alice Bassler]: No, I wasn’t.
[Eric Rice]: You don’t get nervous. You’ve done this a time or two.
[Alice Bassler]: I have.
[Eric Rice]: Okay, let’s get there, but let’s go back first because you’ve been around Blunt County a long time and because this is Let’s Be Blunt, we we always, you know, try to get what what is your connection to to Blunt County and, you know, that sort of thing. So if you can kind of take us back and maybe little Alice years ago in in Blunt County, tell us tell us about your your history with Blunt County.
[Alice Bassler]: well we moved back, let’s see, Jack was about nine months old. We were living in Atlanta and moved back here because all my family is here and in particular my brother lives here in Maryville and then we actually ended up living in the same neighborhood for many years. And I still live in that same neighborhood. So I’ve been here a little over 20 years. So Jack has gone all the way through high school, you know, graduated from Maryville and Violet is a junior at Maryville High School right now. So I’ve been here a long time.
[Eric Rice]: Are you have you guys where were you from before? Where did you live before?
[Alice Bassler]: well, sort of back and forth from New Mexico to Knoxville. My mom was born and raised in Knoxville. Okay. My dad’s from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
[Eric Rice]: okay.
[Alice Bassler]: They met at UT when my dad went to college there when he got out of the Navy. And so then growing up, we’ve kind of lived back and forth between there because his family was all there and my mom’s family is all here. But have been, I’ve been here longer than I’ve been anywhere else in my life. So we moved back to Knoxville when I was a junior in high school. So I went to West and graduated from West High School and then went on to UT and graduated from UT. And then, you know, worked at Knoxville for a little bit, then took a job in New York, so I moved to New York and worked up there for a year. then
[Eric Rice]: What’d you do in New York?
[Alice Bassler]: so I was in it’s sort of a really niche kind of field. It’s it’s research compliance. And so I’ve always worked for a hospital or a university. And they all have something called an institutional review board, which basically reviews any any research done with human subjects has to be reviewed and approved by an institutional review board. And so I was their compliance administrator for that board. And so I started at Covenant after I graduated from UT. I worked for them as their IRB administrator and then took a job in New York at SUNY Stony Brook. So I moved to Long Island and worked for them. and then we got engaged, moved back here, got married, and ended up in Atlanta where I was at Emory, and then my last job in compliance was at Georgia Tech before I had Jack.
[Eric Rice]: Gotcha.
[Brett Heppner]: So we kind of skimmed over that. I want to go back to that. which is what I said. Yeah.
[Eric Rice]: I want to go back.
[Brett Heppner]: There’s compliance if you have human subjects.
[Eric Rice]: which makes sense when you say it out loud, it sounds silly, but it as it should be. But it makes sense, right?
[Brett Heppner]: Like what? Yeah, sort of maybe.
[Alice Bassler]: well, no.
[Brett Heppner]: Are you allowed to talk about what they were doing?
[Alice Bassler]: Of course, yeah. any, so all all major universities are they’re doing research, they’re doing drug comp, they’re doing all the phase one, phase two studies for drug for drug trials are done at universities. And so you have to have human subjects to get your data. So, and then there’s all sorts of other research that happens. There’s a lot of just like stuff out of psychology departments. So anything that involves use of a human has to go before the institutional review board and there’s a whole code of federal regulations that are followed. So, my job was to ensure that all of the what we call them PIs, the primary investigators, they submitted their work, they had an application, it was all reviewed by a board of, you know, various, there was always someone from the community and then the rest were generally from the university that were reviewed it all, made sure it it met the requirements and it wasn’t dangerous and that kind of thing. So, I mean some of them are dangerous, but that’s why we have the board because a lot of really bad studies were done before the institutional review boards were instituted. And so so that’s what I did. And generally, most people really don’t like compliance people because… But I, I really like the job. It’s, you know, I’m very much about making sure everything is done just right. and and I enjoyed it. So I was glad for the the years that I had in there doing it. So, and I had great bosses. I I I was very lucky. Always had really good bosses.
[Eric Rice]: that kind of that makes sense because you eventually would, I guess after your career in compliance, you’d kind of shift gears and start more in the I guess real estate investment market. And so, what did you, tell us about that? Because it seems like your compliance could really help you in that field as well.
[Alice Bassler]: It does. It does. because, you know, there’s just I I try to make everything as streamlined as I possibly can. It makes my life a lot easier and it just makes the tenants’ life a lot easier too to know what what’s required of them or what I expect. And so it it works. It it brings a lot of the same skills to it. Yeah. and but I do love the houses. I love doing the renovation part. That’s my favorite part. Yeah. And I’ve done a bunch of them.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, that’s where I can see it being really because you’re so detailed. And just the time I’ve been around with you with in your investments, you’re so detailed in what needs to be done this way and like you look at something and like that’s not quite right.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah.
[Eric Rice]: And so that’s that’s why I said that. about your investments.
[Brett Heppner]: So when did you start in getting into that?
[Alice Bassler]: So, I think we got the first one. I always do it by age, like Jack. Jack was like two.
[Eric Rice]: Ha!
[Alice Bassler]: So it would have been 2006, would have been the very first property that we got in the fort. And then it just sort of snowballed, I suppose. Like it it we got picked up another and another and then sometimes we do two or three in a year. And before I knew it, there were there were a lot of them. Yeah.
[Brett Heppner]: So. And and all residential up until
[Alice Bassler]: All residential. This this is my first commercial building. All have been residential, but they’ve all been historic renovations that I’ve done because all the houses in the fort are at least all of mine are over 100 years old. So, I’m kind of… walking in here was like nothing. I was like
[Eric Rice]: yeah.
[Brett Heppner]: seen it before
[Alice Bassler]: And I’ve and I’ve worked with Randy for 15 years. Randy Blayman has done all of my renovations. So we’ve worked together a really long time and we we’re really good friends and we he knows what I want and he and I can just walk in and be like, yeah, let’s that’s gonna work. Let’s do that. So.
[Eric Rice]: you you guys know each other’s standards. Yes. He he knows exactly what you’re looking for and and you know that what kind of work that he’s and he’s really famous for. Yes.
[Alice Bassler]: And you know, all the guys too, a lot of I mean all a lot of the subs are the same. So, you know, all all these fellows I’ve known for 15 years too, so I’m super comfortable with them and then they know what I want. And in fact, I’ll walk in and if there’s something they know isn’t just right, they’ll be like, wait, wait for it.
[Brett Heppner]: She’s not gonna like this.
[Alice Bassler]: And then it’s almost immediate, I’ll be like that doesn’t look right.” And they’re like, we knew it. So, I was like, well, you knew it then.
[Eric Rice]: I thought we’d slide… Maybe we could slide one by.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, but but no, they’re all really good fellas and I really like them all as friends too. So we we all work together really well.
[Brett Heppner]: So you have a bunch of residential properties. And then what? This this was for sale for a while, right?
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah. I think so, but you know, I never noticed it before.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, it was I had noticed it, but then you came you sent me a text and said, “Hey, what do you know about this?” Yeah. And I don’t know anything. Yeah, let’s go check it out.
[Alice Bassler]: It was funny because I’d actually been to like it was part I was had been something for the Dogwood Arts Festival. We’d gone to a garden, whatever. And I was standing with Jack, who’s my son, and my brother and his wife, and we were saying you know, when you want to go somewhere or whatever, and we were like, “God, there’s no good, there’s no pubs anywhere.” And and they were like, “Yeah, you’re right,” you know. So so then we left and we’re driving home and I don’t normally take Maryville Pike home, but because of the where I was coming from, I did. And I’m driving downtown and I look over and I’m like, “I’ve never noticed that building before.” And I saw the sign, so I called Eric and I was like, “Hey, can you show us that building?”
[Brett Heppner]: And so, for those that might not know, what is the address here?
[Alice Bassler]: It’s 114 East Broadway.
[Brett Heppner]: He’s so we’re right downtown if you know where like two doors down or Bracken’s is, we’re sandwiched right in between them.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, it’s great location. It’s a great time to be doing this because Maryville seems to have this renaissance.
[Brett Heppner]: especially
[Eric Rice]: coming into downtown, so
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, there’s been a lot of investment in downtown, which I I love. Yeah. I love downtown where there’s things to do and it’s just it just feels different to be able to come downtown and do stuff and I think it’s just a it’s just is more fun. Yeah.
[Brett Heppner]: So, so you call Eric and say, hey, what can you tell me about this? And when when was this?
[Alice Bassler]: Well, let’s see, close to July. It was April?
[Eric Rice]: Yeah
[Alice Bassler]: April
[Eric Rice]: right before the summer
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, probably late April, beginning of May.
[Brett Heppner]: This year?
[Alice Bassler]: Last year.
[Brett Heppner]: last year, that’s what I thought.
[Alice Bassler]: And so he you were he was out of town. And Dallas, I think, right?
[Eric Rice]: Houston
[Alice Bassler]: Houston, okay. And he said, well, I’ll be back in on Monday. So I was like, okay, let’s see it. So we came down on Monday and looked at it and walked in and and Eric and I were like This is just… [Buzzer]
[Brett Heppner]: Eric, your partner, not Eric.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [Laughter]
[Eric Rice]: Common misconception. A lot of Eric around here.
[Brett Heppner]: As Eric Rice didn’t go yeah.
[Eric Rice]: Eric Rice was like, I’ll stand over here by the door in case something falls through the ceiling.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, but it was still a beautiful building even though it had
[Eric Rice]: It
[Alice Bassler]: It was oddly decorated. Yeah. At the time, but it was just like, this is this is a really great building. And so so we thought, yeah, we’re why not? Let’s do that.
[Eric Rice]: So what even like that’s the I mean I think that’s the interesting part about this is like what what was your motivation for even going to take a look? You know, you just it was different from what you’d done before. I know that you you know you we all want to see like I would love to see a pub downtown too, but I’m not going to go out and start one.
[Brett Heppner]: especially in this building. Right.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah. What what would what was your motivation or what made you decide, let’s jump into this?
[Alice Bassler]: So, Eric has always wanted a bar. And and so then when I saw it, I thought, well, that’s gonna be a really fun building to redo. And then it would also be a great bar for him. So, we just thought it was a a good combination to go ahead and and and do it. Yeah. Yeah, and why not? I mean, you only live once. That’s right.
[Eric Rice]: And we keep mentioning Eric, but co-owner. Right. Eric Chadwell. So just just so that people know. Yeah. well, so that’s exciting. And so you you walk in here and you immediately you can kind of see that I I could see your wheels turning and and has it progressed like you thought that it would?
[Alice Bassler]: Well, with the old building you never know. Yeah. And and you should always be ready for, well, it’s never going to be what you, you know, as easy as you think it’s going to be.

so It’s pretty it’s progressed probably as I thought it would. structurally, it’s more than I had hoped it would be. more more work. Yeah. Just more work but just more expense. but you know, now that we’ve got it in, it’s fantastic. You know, and I mean it happened it needed to happen and we know now it’s it’s going to be standing no matter what. Right. And you know, it’s so safe. And but it still has all of its character to it, even with, you know, having to put all the steel in. But but yeah, I think it’s moving along as I predicted it would. And it took a little longer. It took a long time to get the steel. Yeah. But once we got it in, we’re we’re moving along now.
[Brett Heppner]: So for those listening, you mentioned steel a couple times, tell them what you mean by that.
[Alice Bassler]: So.
[Eric Rice]: So, a lot of steel.
[Alice Bassler]: Because we’re going to have a rooftop bar and because the age of the building, the building was built in 1887, it wasn’t built to carry a lot of people in it. So, we basically had to start in the basement, do a all a bunch of new supports, a bunch of new concrete in the basement, but also the steel runs from the basement continuously up through all three floors and out of the roof. So, we’ve taken all the weight off of the original walls basically and it’s all carried by the new steel columns and the new headers that, you know, tons of LVLs have gone in. So, it’s a very, very stout building.
[Eric Rice]: If if you hadn’t wanted to or decided to do a rooftop, would you have had to do as much work?
[Alice Bassler]: Probably yes. Just because these floors are built with the original two by tens. And so even though it’s the building doesn’t show any signs of settling or cracking or anything like that, it’s still solid. It wouldn’t have carried the weight that we would be putting in it. And especially because the kitchen is on the second floor, all the new equipment that’s going to go, it’s heavy. So it would have had to be reinforced, probably not all the way through the roof but it definitely would have come up two floors anyway, so. But having that rooftop patio is just huge. It’s it’s such a great asset to have.
[Eric Rice]: that’s that’s that’s going to be incredible. I’ve seen I’ve actually been up there.
[Alice Bassler]: Yes.
[Eric Rice]: holding on for dear life.
[Alice Bassler]: He was scared climbing the ladder.
[Eric Rice]: climbed the ladder into nowhere and he was like yeah, how am I going to get down?” That was my biggest… that was my biggest thing. But so you were, you know, all this work is going on and you were still sort of working on the concept?
[Alice Bassler]: Yes.
[Eric Rice]: you know, kind of at the same time. Tell us about, you know, when it opens and we’ll get to that, you know, but when it opens, somebody, you know, walks through those doors, what are they going to find at Wells Tavern?
[Alice Bassler]: Well, it’s gonna be it’s a Scottish pub, so it’s gonna have a Scottish influence. And but it’ll also feel like a like a pub if you’ve been to England or Ireland or Scotland, those pubs have a very specific feel to them. And that’s what we want here. just because, you know, I say I say pub is less of a place and more of a feeling. It’s like when people say that. And so that’s what we want here. So when you walk through the door, I want it to feel like, hey, I’m… People say I said, you don’t even feel like you’re in Maryville anymore. Well, that’s not I don’t mean that in a bad way.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s like a new experience. Yeah, you’re gonna walk through and you’ll feel like you’re somewhere else. Which is, you know, it’s always fun. Yeah. so it’s it’ll be a Scottish pub, so it’ll have it’ll have tartan, you know, it’ll have that that it’s not gonna be over the top like a, you know, like an amusement park type thing, but it’ll feel it’ll have that that flavor to it.
[Brett Heppner]: So was there a specific thought process? I mean, to open a bar pub is one thing, but the Scottish feel, I mean, what, why that?
[Alice Bassler]: Well, I mean, Maryville’s a Scottish settlement and then we’ve got the Highlanders, you know, right across the street and there’s tons of really active clans still in this area, you know, they’re very proud of their Scottish heritage. The Highland Games get bigger and bigger every year and we just thought, well, that’s gonna really appeal to a lot of people and you know, and it’s just a great, I mean, it’s just a fun concept.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, different, unique is probably a better word. and so there are what, three levels, right? And and some outdoor spaces.
[Alice Bassler]: Tell us about So out back, we’ll have an outdoor patio with this with a covered stage. and it’ll also have a big stone outdoor fireplace.
[Eric Rice]: Hello
[Alice Bassler]: so that we can, you know, put fires out there when it gets cold. Then we have a second level balcony is not as big but it’ll, you know, it’ll have a drink rail and you can sit at the edge and you’ll be able to see down into the patio. If any, whatever, you know, if there’s a band or anything going on. Then we have rooftop, which will have another drink ledge along the railing as well, but then lots of seating on the roof. And with it’ll have a bathroom on the rooftop as well.
[Eric Rice]: And it’s not just, you know, you you don’t have one beer and
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah. There should be sixteen taps. Sixteen beers on tap. But it’s a full bar, so it’ll have everything.
[Eric Rice]: So full bar, but also food.
[Alice Bassler]: food We have a, it’s not a huge menu, but it’s a really well thought out menu. It’ll have all the things that you’d want on there. So we have four or five appetizers. Our entrees will be fish and chips bangers and mash, pub burger a salad with, you know, salmon on it shepherd’s pie, but we’ll be making it with lamb. So it’s…
[Eric Rice]: It’s actual.
[Alice Bassler]: and
[Eric Rice]: Not the cottage pie.
[Alice Bassler]: not cottage pie which is ground beef. That’s right. Yeah. But so lamb does have a very distinctive flavor to it. and then we have like salt and vinegar wings. We have two soups which are Cullen Skink which is a
[Eric Rice]: Not sure I like the sound of that.
[Brett Heppner]: I’m not gonna say a thing.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s a it’s a smoked haddock potato and leek soup. It was specifically asked for by Matt Harrelson. That was just one thing that he ’cause he said he’s a he’s across the street, he’ll come over every day.
[Eric Rice]: There you go.
[Alice Bassler]: So and then there’s a just a chicken, like a chicken noodle soup on there. Yeah. And then there are three desserts on the menu. So it’s not a huge menu and we’ll we’ll do specials. we want to do things like scotch egg sundaes, you know,
[Eric Rice]: I was gonna say, don’t you have some desserts?
[Alice Bassler]: Yes, we have cranachan which is basically the national dessert of Scotland, which is berries and cream. And then there’s shortbreads and then there’s a fried Mars bar with ice cream. It’s really good. It’s a big thing in in Scotland.
[Eric Rice]: I mean it sounds like a place you could hang out for a minute.
[Alice Bassler]: really
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, not work.
[Brett Heppner]: I can see you walking into Scotland though with all of that and you know, when you were saying, as soon as we started talking about menu, I thought, well, bangers and mash, right? And here’s what I realized. I don’t know what that is. [Laughter] I’ve heard of it. I knew it.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s delicious. It’s a big sausage. it’s generally used an Irish sausage and then the mashed potatoes. Yeah. And so and with a with a brown gravy. Really good.
[Eric Rice]: in a in a in a in a pint
[Brett Heppner]: inappropriate
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah. Yeah. So my brother’s like, he said he’s gonna be here every day ’cause he wants his fish and chips every day.
[Eric Rice]: He’s gonna have his seat at the end of the bar. nameplate on it
[Alice Bassler]: That’s right. which is which is also really exciting for me because I love the idea of being here and just because we know so many people. And it’s just think it’d be so much fun to be here and have people come, you know, just see if your friends come in and out and talk to them and I think it’s just going to be a really fun place. I think it’ll be like a real a very neighborhood type bar.
[Brett Heppner]: You watched Cheers growing up? yeah.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah. That’s great. I mean, love it. You how how fun is it to walk through the door and have everyone in the bar say your name?
[Eric Rice]: Absolutely
[Brett Heppner]: Exactly.
[Eric Rice]: And so we, you know, we said you were co-owner, but you’re also, I mean, what are you, bartender, you know, waitstaff? Yeah, I’ll do whatever. Yeah.
[Alice Bassler]: Whatever they need me to do.
[Eric Rice]: going to be involved
[Alice Bassler]: yeah, I should I’ll be down here. I mainly want to be down here just talking to, you know, just hanging out. But if they need me to do stuff, I’m I’m fully capable and willing to do whatever they need me to do.
[Eric Rice]: And who’s your other staff? You you’ve got some other staff in place, right? We do.
[Alice Bassler]: We have, we have two managers. Joe and Trish, and we already have and we have our chef, which is Andrew. Yeah. And so those are, I think, they’re they’re wonderful, fantastic, and we all get along really well. And I think it’s going to be a really, it’s going to be a really good team. And then of course, Eric will be here every day. Yeah.
[Eric Rice]: And so we mentioned the Renaissance downtown Maryville. There’s lots of things going in lots of things, you know, trying to get open even as we speak. Do you have a projected date or are you close enough to to be able to do that?
[Alice Bassler]: I’m pushing for a December open. Okay. I mean, if we could get it done sooner, I’d be all on board with that, but I feel like where we are now and what we needs to happen, I think December is absolutely a doable date. And I think December will be fun. it’ll be it’s festive. Yeah. People are out and about and we’ve got the Scottish American Military Club. They’re going to want to come, they’re going to do the opening. So they were they said they’ll bring their color guard, their their drums, their piper, and so all sorts of fun. So I think it’s going to be, I think it’ll be really fun.
[Eric Rice]: Where are they at?
[Alice Bassler]: They’re they’re local. Okay. Yeah. So. But
[Eric Rice]: Very nice.
[Brett Heppner]: You know, for I mean, I think we maybe referenced that we are sitting in the pub right now on the second floor and you know December’s only like four months away, right? Yeah.
[Eric Rice]: That’s not long.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s But once things get rolling, it it actually moves pretty quickly once the subs come in. And because you know, not one person’s doing everything. All subs are in here. You know, most subs are in and out in a week or a week and a half, depending on what they have to do. So, you have them all lined up, it’s it can it can happen pretty quickly.

Yeah. And there’s not a ton of finish work in here. I mean, all the walls are remaining the same. We don’t want to cover up any of the plaster or the brick because it’s just it’s so interesting and yeah, I mean it just shows the age of the building. So, and we’re keeping the floors. And so really you know, there’s not a lot of new stuff to be finished in here. So, I think once we once we get the roof finished the subs can start coming in.

Yeah.
[Eric Rice]: How was it? and we may have to put this in a different spot because it may open a different can of worms, but how was it working with the city of Maryville? Because this is a historic building. I know you’re right, you’re facing downtown, you’re in the, you know, there’s I’m sure regulations and things. But how was it working with the city and and to get things done?
[Alice Bassler]: it’s it’s been really good. you know, we went in front of the DDRB twice for from things that we were asking for and we, you know, got went through fairly easily with them. They were really good to work with. We got our approvals. pulling the permits has not been an issue. And so I, you know, I feel like they want the building to happen too. I mean, you know, nobody wants empty buildings sitting downtown.
[Brett Heppner]: Is it historic though? I mean, what’s our historic requirements?
[Alice Bassler]: Well, yes. So that’s why we had to go in front of the DDRB because it is historic and there are certain requirements, paint colors, and things like that that you have to
[Brett Heppner]: maintaining the front of the building
[Alice Bassler]: So everything the facade of the building doesn’t cannot change. So any of the original features on the building remain in place. We don’t change them. We can paint them, but we can’t change them.
[Eric Rice]: put a sign up
[Alice Bassler]: We can put our sign up, yes. you know, obviously some work has already been done to this building prior to us. so I will, you know, we will be changing out the windows and doing new windows down on the bottom.
[Eric Rice]: Gotcha.
[Alice Bassler]: but the brick and all of the architectural features on the building remain. And in fact, we’ll be repairing the ones that have been damaged. So, you know, it’ll be restored, but not changed.
[Eric Rice]: What was this place, what was it called before? What was the building called originally?
[Alice Bassler]: S-A-P-A-T. Say, Pat. S A Patton was a a jeweler and he built the the building as his jewelry store. So it’s S A Patton Jewelers. And then I think it remained that for many, many years. And then you can see in the doorway downstairs there’s a mosaic that has Hope Brothers Jewelers in it. So at one point in time the Hope Brothers were here and they have that other building on Gay Street, which is Hope Brothers Jewelers as well. And then I’m not sure when it stopped being a jewelry store, but then became something called The Sandwood Shop. Yeah. Where and I’m not sure exactly.
[Eric Rice]: Nobody knows exactly what went on in this country.
[Alice Bassler]: was here for about 50 years at least, right? 40 40 years at least. and so really, I’m not sure exactly. And of course it looked very different even before the owner that we bought it from, he had come in and he had he had opened up the second floor. So, originally you could only get to the second floor through the fire escape on the side. He’s the one who opened this up and put the interior staircase in. And did and also removed a lot of the plaster. So, there was a fair amount of work done inside. before we got it.
[Eric Rice]: Well what, Alice, we’ve talked a lot about a lot of different things. What what haven’t we asked you? What do you what do you want to tell folks about the building, about Wells Tavern, about yourself? what do we need to share?
[Alice Bassler]: Wow. people
[Eric Rice]: And there’s at least seven people listening at the all time. Maybe we should get Eric to ask about…
[Brett Heppner]: That’s right.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah.
[Alice Bassler]: Who’s listening right now?
[Eric Rice]: At least.
[Brett Heppner]: Jack might hear this. Keep that in mind. And what’s your daughter’s name?
[Alice Bassler]: Violet
[Brett Heppner]: violently and she’ll inevitably listen to
[Eric Rice]: She’ll listen. And she’ll be like Mom, I have to go to school.” I gotta go to school tomorrow.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah. So, I think let’s see, well, I don’t know.
[Eric Rice]: that’s a very open-ended question. I know. I just throw it out there. That’s what we do. It’s hard-hitting journalism.
[Alice Bassler]: It
[Brett Heppner]: It
[Alice Bassler]: It is.
[Brett Heppner]: Let me ask you this, I guess, to lead you into it. is there a social media
[Alice Bassler]: Yes. So we we are on Instagram and also on Facebook. So Wells Tavern
[Brett Heppner]: Well
[Alice Bassler]: on Instagram and we’re actually have over a thousand followers, which is fantastic because we’re not even open. Right. so I think people are really excited about it and we know we get little comments about, you know, can’t wait to spend, you know, every day there. Which I’m like, great. We can’t wait either. I just think it’s going to be a really great place for everyone to to come. I mean, you know, I think about Friday night football and then we’ve got, you know, football Saturdays and just there’s just all sorts of, you know, fun things. And we’re open to everyone. You know, we don’t we don’t have an age, we don’t, you know, cut it off. And so if you have kids, you want to bring them here at 10 o’clock at night, that’s that’s fine. That’s up to you. I mean, I… Yeah. You know, it doesn’t bother me. So I think it’ll be a family place too. but also just a place where you can come, it’s not going to be loud. it’s pub Yeah. You know, Eric and I had a little discussion over the number of TVs that would be in here.
[Eric Rice]: appropriate
[Alice Bassler]: appropriate number of TVs
[Brett Heppner]: I’m going to guess Eric’s number was bigger than yours.
[Alice Bassler]: Yes, that’s right. [Laughter] Yeah.
[Eric Rice]: Can we bring him in just on Saturdays?
[Alice Bassler]: So, so we did we came to an agreement on it and I was like, let’s have one. He’s like, are you kidding?
[Brett Heppner]: That’s not the agreement, was it?
[Alice Bassler]: No, no. No, no. I I gave a lot on that one. Yeah, yeah. There’ll be more than one TV in here. But
[Eric Rice]: But it’s not going to be a sports bar.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s not a sports bar.
[Eric Rice]: It’s a different field.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, it’s people, you know, if you want to come in here and and actually have a conversation and talk to each other then you’ll be able to. You’re not going to be yelling at each other. Awesome. Or across the table. So.
[Brett Heppner]: Well, I think it’s going to be a great addition to downtown.
[Eric Rice]: we have wine.
[Alice Bassler]: Yes. Okay. We’ll have we have
[Eric Rice]: So Molly can come too.
[Alice Bassler]: Molly can come, I know. She’s a yeah. She likes her wine.
[Eric Rice]: She likes her wine.
[Brett Heppner]: Careful with that one.
[Alice Bassler]: We will. We’ll have a we’ll fill a full bar. And we want to do fun things you know, like flights of different scotches from different regions and all that kind of thing. very you know, make it interesting. Yeah.
[Brett Heppner]: Bangers and mash will be the first thing I have when I come in.
[Eric Rice]: Excellent
[Brett Heppner]: Sounds good.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s really good.
[Eric Rice]: I’m gonna have that soup.
[Alice Bassler]: No. Colin’s game. I can’t wait. I love potatoes.
[Brett Heppner]: It sounds like roadkill. Sorry.
[Eric Rice]: Talent No, I’m trying it. Very first.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, good. You’re gonna love it. You’re gonna love it. It’s good. It’s like, you know, like potato soup.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, it’s gonna be fine. Plus you’ll have, I mean, how bad could it be if you’re washing it down with
[Brett Heppner]: You know. Yeah. Bangers and mash, sausage and mashed potatoes, some kind of skank is potato soup. It’s like, they’re just more exciting names.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, exactly. Alice, this has been fun and we really appreciate you bringing us in here and giving us the tour and we’re certainly excited for you guys to get open.
[Brett Heppner]: We’re not going to hold you to the December thing, but we’re hoping.
[Alice Bassler]: me too.
[Eric Rice]: We got our fingers crossed.
[Alice Bassler]: I’m holding myself to the December thing. I really want it. Yeah, I mean I think it’s
[Brett Heppner]: Yeah, that’s true. If you’re listening to this, Randy, Randy, the subs ’cause she’ll be coming in looking at your work.
[Alice Bassler]: That’s right.
[Brett Heppner]: Did we talk about that on the air or was it was beforehand when she said that that she no
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, no, it was…
[Brett Heppner]: Transcribe
[Eric Rice]: Yeah
[Alice Bassler]: they know me. cracked the whip But no, I think it’s just going to be so much fun. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be it’s going to look different. then you it’s just going to be, you know, the colors are, I’ll give a little away. Purple, green, and camel.
[Eric Rice]: Okay. I like all those.
[Brett Heppner]: Camel’s not in my color. Yeah, you guys are in some kind of tan.
[Eric Rice]: Camel. It’s a camel jacket.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s a tan.
[Brett Heppner]: Yeah, I always say that women live in the 64 crayon box with the sharpener and men live in the little eight one.
[Alice Bassler]: Yeah, that’s right. Red, blue, yellow, green.
[Brett Heppner]: You have a variation of those.
[Eric Rice]: You have a a mascot.
[Alice Bassler]: Yes, we do. He’s a pigeon. His name is Patton. We named him after S.A. Patton. There’s a little tie-in to the building and he’s a pigeon and pigeons are very Scottish. birds Okay. And yeah, and so he wears a little, you know, he wears a little kilt and a little tam o’ shanter. And so he’ll be…
[Brett Heppner]: Tammy
[Eric Rice]: Tammy Shantler, that’s a hat.
[Alice Bassler]: It’s a hat. So, yeah, so we have our he’s on he’s on a lot of our stuff.
[Brett Heppner]: We haven’t asked this yet, but how many times have you been to Scotland?
[Alice Bassler]: I’ve been once.
[Eric Rice]: my gosh. That’s more than we thought.
[Brett Heppner]: No, it’s… are you kidding? It’s way less than I thought.
[Alice Bassler]: which she knows words like that. to, I mean been to England twice, Ireland, Scotland. So it’s just, it’s just such a fantastic, I mean it’s just such, it’s just such a different feeling. It’s just wonderful.
[Brett Heppner]: So.
[Alice Bassler]: Edinburgh is a if you get a chance to go, that is one of the most gorgeous cities you’ll ever see.
[Brett Heppner]: Really? Okay.
[Eric Rice]: All right, put it on our noted. Put it on our trip list. Yes. We’ve got about 108 different places that we’d really like to go. Yeah, I know.
[Alice Bassler]: No
[Eric Rice]: And I’m running out of time.
[Brett Heppner]: I got to run them by the line.
[Alice Bassler]: We’re running out of time.
[Eric Rice]: I’m not gonna live forever.
[Alice Bassler]: That’s right. They say you get 80 summers.
[Brett Heppner]: don’t say that.
[Alice Bassler]: Isn’t that a terrible
[Brett Heppner]: My wife just sent this is way off track now. My wife just sent out an Instagram reel, shocking, I know, for my kids that are listening, it’s like several a day. But it said ninety this is good for you. 93% of the time that you spend with your kids, I’m paraphrasing, is before they graduate high school. Yeah. So, soak it in while you can, Jamie. I know.
[Alice Bassler]: that is true. That’s true. It’s bad news for us.
[Eric Rice]: and I’ll be crying in my beer. All right. [Buzzer] Well, we’re gonna we’re gonna wrap this portion up, but Alice, thank you so much.
[Alice Bassler]: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it.
[Brett Heppner]: It’s fun.
[Alice Bassler]: Thanks. Thank you.
[Eric Rice]: Okay, Alice Basler thanks for joining us. Wells Tavern opening September 19th, right? Saturday September 19th?
[Brett Heppner]: That’s right. Yeah, yeah. And you know, she’s just as good as she was the last time we talked to her.
[Eric Rice]: She… yeah, exactly. it was very similar interview. I I thought it was really interesting. you know, we started talking about her previous jobs and the detail and all the things that but what I found interesting is going back to listen to it the second time is that the vision that she had that she shared during that interview that was about a year ago is pretty much what they are sort of, you know, foreshadowing for the rest of us who are excited to go inside the building while it’s working and all that kind of thing. But, you know, the menu, the drinks, the the setting, everything seems to be right on the way she had planned it.
[Brett Heppner]: Yeah And if you if you’re watching this instead of listening to it a year ago when we talked to her, we were audio only. So I went back and loaded some pictures to just scroll along. So if you were watching it, you saw everything I mean from a couple of what what it was before, which is it meant like you mentioned in the interview a year ago that like you were a little scared walking in the building the first time. yeah, to what it is now is yeah, I mean phenomenal.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, the work that they did was really, really incredible. I mean, I wish, you know, people would have been able to see it the beforehand ’cause when we walked through, yeah, there we you had to have some vision and she definitely had some vision. and the the, you know, I know Randy Layman and his crew are amazing, they do just top-notch work and so I I expect it to be, you know, really incredible in there, so looking forward to that opening pretty soon.
[Brett Heppner]: Yeah September 19th, like you said, and I am, as I mentioned in the interview, looking forward to Bangers and Mash and Cullen Skink. How could you not be looking forward to Cullen Skink?
[Eric Rice]: So looking forward to Cullen Skink. I wonder if Michelle McCool has ever had McCool and Skink.
[Brett Heppner]: Nicely done, Eric, because I was going to say because you said Alice had vision, I said, you know who else has vision is Michelle McCullough. So, since we’re both thinking along the same track, let’s find out what Michelle has to say.
[Speaker 4]: Hello, this is Michelle McCauley with Movement Mortgage, bringing you today’s mortgage market update. Mortgage rates remain elevated with the average 30-year fixed rate around the upper 6% range. All prices continue to rise and that’s a reflection of continued escalations between the US and Iran, and that rise is applying some pressure to the bond market. First-time homebuyers, don’t let today’s rates stop you from exploring your options. Focus on comfortable monthly payment, ask about down payment assistance, and get pre-approved before you shop.

Homeowners considering a refinance, it isn’t only about lowering your rate. It could reduce your payment, shorten your loan term, or help consolidate higher interest debt. Always compare the closing costs with your monthly savings. The right move depends on your goals, so let’s review the numbers together without pressure. Call me at 865-806-6113.
[Brett Heppner]: All right. wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I got it. I got it. We should do that for our guests too, when they have a little more
[Eric Rice]: We’ll do that for you. Yeah. We do that, the two of us do that.
[Brett Heppner]: Well, yeah. You know, she’s as I guess anybody in the real estate market that the interest rates are kind of an uphill battle and and I mean like kind of like like we talked about last episode I think they’re going to start showing up in the numbers.
[Eric Rice]: I think so too, but I also think and I know you’re going to talk a little bit more about the market and those kind of things. Aside from the the rates, I think the the competition is much greater for sellers. We have a lot more houses on the market. so buyers have choices and they’ve got a little bit of of power and you know, so the market is sort of the pendulum swinging back a little bit towards the buyer. So yeah, there’s some give and take with the rates, but maybe that will kind of even things out because it we’ve it’s been pretty crazy the last five years.
[Brett Heppner]: Yeah And like we said, like this episode comes out, this is our first one in September, so it gives us an opportunity to look back at August and which I guess is two-thirds of the way through the year.

couple of things that showed up that I wasn’t surprised about and at least one that I was surprised about, the not surprised was sold listings in Blunt County in July, 223.

in August, 175. So it it’s dropped, you know, almost 50 properties and and that doesn’t surprise me.

new listings kind of followed suit going from 285 new listings in July to 234. I mean, it’s kind of parallel.

that doesn’t surprise me at all with the

with the market the way it is and heading into the fall. The one thing that did surprise me, I guess, was average days on market.

43, the average days on market in August was 43. In last August, August of 25 was 58 days on market. They’re selling on average 15 days quicker.

medians obviously a lower number because those slow selling houses really affect the average but median was 24 last year and this year it was 16 days which really surprised me.
[Eric Rice]: That is surprising. Do you know, is that active listings? or or I guess when are those sold?
[Brett Heppner]: that that was just in August. year-to-date’s not quite impacted as much. Year-to-date in August of 25, the median was 24 and in August of 26, year-to-date it’s 20 days. So it is still four days quicker. whereas the average went from 50 to 51. That shows you what the I mean, those two numbers can be so different.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah.
[Brett Heppner]: the one thing I did look up, you mentioned because you mentioned active active ones, and I’m doing this without my glasses on, so Average days on market for active listings right now is 105. Now that’s bolstered by a 9900 square foot house that’s been on the market for 820 days. Median days is still 62. So the ones that are still out there are higher than the ones that have sold, which I mean I think that basically says price it right, it’ll still do you favors, but some people are a little optimistic maybe in their pricing.
[Eric Rice]: Yeah, and I think also this time of year, we talked about it beginning of the school year and you know, everybody getting into through Labor Day. I feel like, you know, end of summer through Labor Day can be a little slow in terms of sales, so that maybe houses sit on the market just a little bit more, just a little bit longer during this time. not quite as many showings, that kind of thing.
[Brett Heppner]: True. But yeah, that’s a that’s kind of a quick little nutshell wrap on what’s going on in the market. So without further ado, I would say that’s probably a wrap on another episode.
[Eric Rice]: I agree. join us in two weeks for our next one.
[Brett Heppner]: Who will our next guest be?
[Eric Rice]: What topics will we cover?
[Brett Heppner]: And what’s changed in the real estate market?
[Eric Rice]: Well
[Brett Heppner]: Let’s find out.
[Eric Rice]: Thanks for listening to the Let’s Be Blunt podcast. If you have questions or guest ideas or if you’d like to sponsor a segment of our podcast, please send us an email at theletsbebluntpodcast at gmail dot com.
[Brett Heppner]: I’m Brad Hettner.
[Eric Rice]: And I’m Eric Rice.
[Brett Heppner]: And we call ourselves the Property Dads. As local realtors, we want you to know and love this community as much as we do. If you have questions about real estate, don’t hesitate to call us at La Cont Realty at 865-268-4180. We’ll be happy to help.