The owners of City Butcher and Barbecue have a new venture cooking.
Jeremy Smith, who
in November 2014 opened City Butcher in Kickapoo Corners on South Campbell Avenue with business partner Cody Smith, said the downtown concept dubbed CB Social House would be a three-pronged venture comprising a butcher shop, restaurant and bar.
“We knew that there was a need for diversification as far as restaurants go downtown,” Jeremy Smith said. “It’s kind of the same thing and had been the same thing for quite a while.
“There needed to be something to stir it up, not to necessarily take anything from anybody else, but to create a little more of a symbiotic restaurant environment down there - a little more inviting.”
The business partners seek to open by September at 314 S. Patton Ave., where Scott Tillman and Eric Zackrison operated Hickok’s Steakhouse & Brewery 2005–08. The owners of City Butcher signed a three-year lease with two, five-year renewal options for undisclosed terms with Tillman. The 9,000-square-foot space across from Patton Alley Pub most recently was home to
DeCarlos Italian Cafe, and the top floor is leased by event business Rogers & Baldwin.
Smith said CB Social House would have an Americana-style menu, including select City Butcher items cooked on-site, a cocktail bar serving whiskey and other spirits, and a shop with a range of meats, eggs, milk, bread and bottled sodas. At what Smith called the owners' downtown market, all of the sausage for both CB Social House and City Butcher would be made.
The business partners looked at the building four times before the idea clicked.
“We weren’t working the Rubik's Cube properly when we kept looking at that building,” Smith said, noting the owners didn’t originally have the CB Social House concept in mind. “Finally, on the fourth time, it was big light bulbs. It all fell into place.”
Smith said renovation and demolition work is currently underway to give the space a new feel while maintaining its historical vibe. The business license - CB Social House LLC - lists Brent Sonnemaker as an organizer. Smith declined to disclose Sonnemaker’s involvement in the business. According to
OzarksFN.com, Sonnemaker owns a farm in Marshfield.
