PALMER TWP., Pa. – Fat Jacks’, an Easton-area sports bar that’s hosted Sunday afternoon football and postgame softball gatherings for three decades, has scheduled its last call.
The tavern at 2722 Freemansburg Ave. will tap out with its final day of business on Saturday, Aug. 12.
- Fat Jacks' final day of business is set for Saturday, Aug. 12
- The property is under contract to be sold to new owners
- Plans are to keep it a sports bar under a new name, Susan Kerbaugh said
Owner Susan Kerbaugh posted the date Thursday night on Facebook — and was flooded with a stream of well-wishes and tributes.
"Bittersweet, I think, is the best way to describe it.”Fat Jack's owner Susan Kerbaugh
“It’s very hard to do,” Kerbaugh said Friday at the bar. “You’re constantly second-guessing yourself. But like I said before, it’s time to get some younger people in here.
“There have been a ton of comments on Facebook. It hits home. It gets you in the heart. Bittersweet, I think, is the best way to describe it.”
'Last of my dad. And it's hard'
The property is under contract and awaiting transfer of the liquor license.
Details of the new owners and their plans will be released closer to the closing of the sale, said Lori Campbell, an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Heritage Real Estate. The list price was $699,900.
Kerbaugh said the new owners plan to maintain the place as a sports bar. A public notice posted in Fat Jacks’ window identifies the liquor license transfer applicant as The Coop Sports Bar and Restaurant Enterprises LLC.
The new owners had inquired about keeping the Fat Jacks’ name, but Kerbaugh said it meant too much to her to pass along to someone else.
“I greatly appreciate them wanting to use the name. It’s an honor,” she said. “But it’s just too hard on the heart. That was my father. This is the last of my dad. And it’s hard.”
Fat Jacks’ opened in April 1991 with original partners Jack Kerbaugh, a former shop teacher at Easton Area High School; and Jack Fisher, a former Major League pitcher who played with the New York Mets from 1964 through 1967.
Susan Kerbaugh has run the place since 1998, when the Kerbaughs bought out Fisher. Jack Kerbaugh died in 2017.
'And then that's it'
The property’s roots as a bar go way back. Before it was Fat Jacks’, it was known as Mammy Morgan’s, and the K Bar before that.
Kerbaugh acknowledged that the past 24 hours have produced a whirlwind of emotions, underscored by a comment her 40-year-old daughter, Krysta Panto, posted on social media.
It struck her, Kerbaugh said, how much the business and its loyal customers have meant to the family.
Krysta was 9 when her grandfather bought the place, started working there when she was 19 and eventually met her husband there, Susan Kerbaugh said.
“I greatly appreciate them wanting to use the name. It’s an honor. But it’s just too hard on the heart. That was my father. This is the last of my dad. And it’s hard.”Fat Jacks' owner Susan Kerbaugh
“I greatly appreciate each and every customer that I’ve ever had,” she said. “It was great seeing kids grow up through the years and now they come in with their kids. I’m going to miss them all.”
As for Fat Jacks’ last day, Kerbaugh said she plans to keep it simple. She’s not much of a drinker, she said, but might have one or two with all her friends.
“Hopefully it’s a real big party,” she said. "I’m hoping the people that I’ve been with every day will be here to share it with me and lock the doors at 2:30 a.m.
"And then that’s it.”
