PALMER TWP., Pa. – The pending new owner of Fat Jacks’, one of the Lehigh Valley’s original sports bars, says he doesn’t plan any wholesale changes to the Freemansburg Avenue institution.
For the past 13 years, Chaz Patrick has owned Molly’s Irish Grille and Sports Pub in South Bethlehem.
- Fat Jacks' new owner has run Molly's in South Bethlehem for 13 years
- The deal is expected to close by the end of August
- Fat Jacks' will be renamed The Coop Sports Bar & Kitchen
If all goes as planned, he said, he’ll close on Fat Jacks’ by the end of August and make it the second of his Lehigh Valley establishments.
Patrick, who is actually partnering with five other silent investors in the business, said the name will be changed to The Coop Sports Bar & Kitchen.
“Molly’s is doing pretty well and I have a great management team,” he said of the tavern at 4 E. Fourth St., near Lehigh University. “I have been looking for something else and this opportunity became available. I think it’s going to be great.”
Fat Jacks’ owner Susan Kerbaugh told LehighValleyNews.com that her last day of business will be Saturday, Aug. 12. She said the new owners wanted to keep the Fat Jacks’ name but she couldn’t allow it because of its ties to her late father Jack Kerbaugh, one of the original partners with former New York Mets pitcher Jack Fisher.
Patrick said the new investors explored keeping the Fat Jacks’ name “for the history,” but didn’t press the matter.
“We understood why, absolutely, and we just went a different way,” he said.
The new logo features a stern-looking rooster and will be the sign outside the place at 2722 Freemansburg Ave.
“We just kind of made it up. We like chickens,” Patrick said with a laugh. “Chicken coop we always thought was kind of funny and that’s where we went with it.”
“We plan to have great food, great service. We want to be active in the community with sponsoring teams, and we want the neighborhood people."Chaz Patrick, The Coop Sports Bar & Kitchen
Fat Jacks’ went on the market in April and had been listed at $699,900. Patrick would not elaborate on the sale price.
“We’ll keep it a sports bar,” he said. “We plan to do some renovations but nothing major. We’ll install some new TVs, things like that.
"We’re working on the menu now. It’ll be a pub grub menu for the most part but we're looking to elevate some stuff, like a smoker. We’re going to try to capture that and some other signature things that people will like."
Patrick said the concept will be a family-friendly neighborhood place that’s open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. The layout inside will remain essentially unchanged, he said, perhaps with the addition of a pool table.
Patrick has owned Molly’s for 13 years and has spent his career in the bar and restaurant business.
He grew up in Glenside, Pa., just outside Philadelphia, and moved to the Lehigh Valley 30 years ago to take a job as a manager at the Applebee’s off Catasauqua Road in Bethlehem.
He said he’s known Susan Kerbaugh for some time and is delighted to be carrying on the tradition of a sports bar in Palmer Township.
“After the pandemic, it was draining on all of us in the business,” she said. “I understand where she was at.
“We plan to have great food, great service. We want to be active in the community with sponsoring teams, and we want the neighborhood people. If it worked at Molly’s we think it will work there. So far, we’ve heard some pretty good buzz about it.”
