Historic Belleville bar to reopen after a year of renovation. What’s different?
People who love nostalgia and want Charlie’s bar and restaurant in downtown Belleville to look like it did in the past won’t be disappointed by its recent renovation.
People hoping for a spiffed-up Charlie’s with modern updates won’t be disappointed, either.
“I’m extremely proud,” said Barb Swantner, who bought the two-story brick building at 200 Mascoutah Ave. with a silent partner last summer and oversaw much of the work with her sister, Beth Rund.
“This was a huge project, not only rehabbing an historic building, but also starting a business in it. Neither one of us have been in the restaurant business. This is new for us.”
Now known as Charlie’s Place, the bar and restaurant initially will serve customers on a reservation-only basis Thursday through Saturday then open for normal operations Tuesday, Aug. 27.
Preservation-wise, the owners kept the knotty-pine paneling, exposed brick wall and classic L-shaped bar that’s trimmed in mahogany and upholstered in burgundy leather with brass tacks.
They pulled plywood off vintage Florentine-snowflake glass windows to let in more light and uncovered a massive timber beam that had been hidden inside a wall.
Updates include new electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, renovated bathrooms, gray vinyl flooring in place of worn red carpeting and sleek black pendant lighting over the bar. The old stained-glass lamps with beer advertising are being used elsewhere.
A large back room has been divided into a dart room and a video-gambling parlor with slot and poker machines.
“Of course we want to maintain the history, and we want to appeal to local people who have been coming to this place for years,” said Lily Sparen, general manager. “But we also want to appeal to a younger market. We’re a neighborhood tavern for everyone.”
International pub fare
The space at the intersection of Mascoutah, Abend and Lincoln has housed drinking establishments — whether called “saloons,” “taverns” or “bars” — for more than 150 years.
Charlie Wilson opened the original Charlie’s in 1985 and sold it in 1999 to Mike Whitaker, who revamped it in 2018 and renamed it Charlie’s Off Main. It closed a year and a half later and sat vacant for three years before the latest renovation began.
The new Charlie’s menu will bring back fried chicken, fish and burgers while adding dishes in the category of “international pub fare.”
Think Canadian Poutine (french fries with gravy and cheese curds), British bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) and a German schnitzel (tenderized-meat) sandwich.
“Everything will be locally sourced,” said consultant Stephanie Gain, who operated the former Seven restaurant and bar in Belleville. “We’ll get our pork from Schubert’s (in Millstadt). Our beef is coming from Ruth Family Farms (in Missouri).”
Gain helped the owners find vendors and connected them with Sparen and Executive Chef Joseph Taylor, who most recently worked at Farmstand 161, an eatery at Crooked Creek Winery in Centralia.
Belleville residents may recognize Taylor from Seven, where his blues and classic-rock band, Roaming Home, hosted open-mic nights. He’s also passionate about food.
“Personally, I like to do everything from scratch,” Taylor said.
Other items on the Charlie’s menu are kale salad with toasted chick peas, pot roast, curry chicken pot pie, sandwiches and appetizers such as chicken wings, fried pickles and pretzels with dipping sauce. On-tap beers include Stag, originally brewed in Belleville.
Community effort
Swantner and her partner had hoped to reopen the bar and restaurant last November or early this year, but they were delayed by supply-chain issues and “great ideas” that popped up along the way and took time to execute.
Swantner noted that carpenters Kevin Bujnak and Mike Comley painstakingly worked to make sure new wood doors, trim, cabinets and shelves matched the vintage knotty pine.
Neighbors Kelly and Tim Rule painted parts of the main level, as well as the second floor, which was converted into four, two-room apartments known as Charlie’s Lofts. Others pitched in on odd jobs.
“It was a community effort,” Swantner said.
Retiree Rich Holtman used his master skills to refurbish the bar’s mahogany trim and foot rest, the back bar and the newly-exposed timber beam.
Holtman grew up on South Charles Street, next to Joe and Marie Sommers, who operated Joe’s Corner Tavern and later Corner Tavern in the space from 1949 to 1975. Holtman still lives in the neighborhood.
“I used to get buckets of beer for my dad when I was a kid, every Thursday night,” he said. “That’s when he trimmed the hedges at our house, and when he was about halfway through, he’d give me 15 cents to go and get a bucket of beer.”
The storefront at 200 Mascoutah Ave. actually consists of two buildings. The oldest section was built in 1869 or the early 1870s by Henry Ehret, a German immigrant whose family also owned a brick factory, according to Bob Brunkow, historian for Belleville Historical Society.
In addition to bars, the buildings have housed butcher shops, groceries, restaurants, a billiard parlor, florist shop, confectionery, barbershop and novelty-machine business.
Swantner, formerly Barb Knebelkamp, 64, grew up in Belleville. She lived in Missouri for more than 25 years, raised three children and worked as a physical therapist and real-estate agent.
Swantner returned to her hometown three years ago, when she bought a two-story brick home on Abend Street that her great-great-grandfather built in the 1870s. She began restoring it from apartments back into a single-family residence.
Swantner and Rund’s father, the late Adolph “Junior” Knebelkamp, was a regular at the Corner Tavern down the street. That helped motivate the sisters to bring it back to life.
“We just want it to be a friendly corner bar,” Swantner said.
Hours at Charlie’s Place will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday (kitchen until 9); 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday (kitchen until 10); and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday (kitchen until 5).
