Willy’s Bar & Grill poised to open by month’s end

Creston area residents will soon have one more full-service dining option. Willy’s Bar & Grill is set to open, “hopefully before July fourth returns,” said owner Ryan Hayes.

“We’ve got a double stack oven and we’ve got a stovetop flat grill,” he said. “We can probably cook about anything… so it’s not just bar food.”

He plans to employ about 25 people, with a mix of full and part-time workers. The labor market across the country has been tight in recent months, but Hayes said he doesn’t think he’ll have a problem finding employees in this area.

He said consistency and freshness will set Willy’s apart.

“Everything will be made to order. It’ll be consistent. There’ll be a few different things I think that the other local restaurants don’t have,” he said.

Willy’s will offer daily food specials and happy hour discounts on drinks.

The bar will have 16 beer taps. He hasn’t decided all brands yet, but there will be a few IPAs on tap. For soft drinks they will serve Coke products among other beverages.

“We might have a couple of craft beers out of Des Moines, and maybe out of Iowa City,” he said.

Hayes said his father was the inspiration behind the name.

“William Hayes. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be in this business,” he said. “He owned The Windrow for 39 years. He passed away last September [2020].”

His father was a Marine who served in Vietnam and earned a Purple Heart. He got his start in food service working for his brother at a Jack in the Box in San Diego, where he met and married his wife Janet.

The Windrow was originally called King’s Cafe before his father moved back to Creston and purchased it in 1980. The younger Hayes worked at the Windrow as their bar manager. He said his father’s recipe for success that kept The Windrow thriving for nearly four decades was pretty simple. It was just “good food and good people” he said.

The Windrow had a salad bar, and that’s something he doesn’t plan to have at Willy’s.

“Covid kind of downplayed that more than anything,” he said.

He plans to have the kitchen open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, opening at 9 a.m. on weekends. He is considering breakfast. The bar will likely be open until midnight.

“We’ll be open seven days a week. And we’re talking about Saturday and Sunday breakfast,” Hayes said, adding that he’ll be there every day to manage the restaurant and keep things running smoothly.

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(Jason O'Day)

Willy’s is located at 809 S. Pine St. He said he liked starting out with an empty lot and having the ability to design the building from scratch to fit his restaurant concept. The south end of the building has an outdoor patio.

Hayes said he also saw a demand for a new restaurant on the south end of town.

“We need something out there,” he said.

He emphasized that it’s on South Pine Street, not South Vine.

“I’ve had a lot of my deliveries end up on Vine Street. I’ve gotten to meet my neighbors two blocks over,” he said.