It’s been almost 10 years since Don Dugan opened Dugan’s Pub in the River Market District, and since then the Little Rock restaurateur’s goal has remained the same: Give people what they want.
It’s a formula for success that has allowed him to buy two additional restaurants in the last year or so, Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, which he purchased in May 2019, and South on Main, which he bought in February.
Discussing the importance of wearing masks in a pandemic, Dugan described his principle of hospitality as a whole: “We want to make people feel comfortable. We want to make them feel like they belong and they’re going to be in a place that’s looking after them.”
That goal goes back to Dugan’s early days in the industry, working at the Chenal Country Club under Eric Bugeya, a Frenchman from Marseilles who was the club’s food and beverage director. “Eric taught me more about the service end of the business than I’d ever known,” Dugan said. “It was a pretty simple philosophy: Give people what they want.”
Dugan, born and raised in Little Rock, also worked for another mentor, Wally Gieringer, owner of La Scala restaurant and the adjacent bar, the Afterthought, in Hillcrest. There, Dugan learned fundamentals like how to price a menu.
In its decade of existence, Dugan’s Pub, which opened in October 2010, has become part of the fabric of the River Market District. Known in particular for its annual boisterous St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, it’s also a place where people, many of them regulars, watch sports.
Becoming a presence in the lives of patrons was intentional on the part of Dugan and his wife and business partner, Tasha Stratton, with whom he owns Stratton’s Market next door.
The sports affiliation started when the Little Rock chapter of the American Outlaws, supporters of the U.S. national soccer teams, asked if the pub would be interested in being the “home bar” for the Outlaws. “Absolutely,” he told them. At that point, Dugan’s was still struggling to bring more people downtown.
He also hosts NFL Sunday Ticket streaming games because “I love football” and it’s “a good way to bring people in the door on a Sunday.”
The St. Patrick’s Day celebration was another successful effort to coax diners downtown. Dugan called it a “big block party,” which the pub has hosted every year since it opened. This year, of course, was a muted affair, with the coronavirus pandemic keeping the crowds away.
Last year saw Dugan and Stratton branch out with the purchase of Dizzy’s, a popular restaurant just a few blocks away, from Darla Huie. Dugan had been talking to another restaurateur about making a purchase when Huie reached out to Dugan, who saw the Dizzy’s acquisition as a “much better deal.”
And last year was a good one for the Dugan-Stratton partnership, with sales for the three businesses — Dugan’s, Stratton’s Market and Dizzy’s — totaling more than $3.5 million, Dugan said.
Then on Feb. 10, Dugan and Stratton bought South on Main from owner and chef Matt Bell. Bell, too, had reached out to Durgan about buying the restaurant after Bell was offered the chance to run Gray & Dudley, the restaurant in the 21c Museum Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
At South on Main, Dugan is working to make the menu more approachable, to make it a neighborhood fixture much as Dugan’s and Dizzy’s are. “We looked at the demographics and the psychographics of what was there in that neighborhood and we want [it] to become a neighborhood place again.”
Of course, the pandemic has meant challenges for Dugan. After the state ordered restaurant dining rooms closed, the pub stayed open doing curbside pickup. Dizzy’s was closed for almost a month and then reopened for takeout. And South on Main was also closed for a time while Dugan took the opportunity to spruce up the place. He’s also building an addition to the rear of the restaurant to provide an open-air dining area.
All the restaurants are now open under Phase 2 guidelines.
Dugan noted that the word “pub” in Dugan’s Pub stands for “public house,” which in small communities in Ireland traditionally serves as a gathering spot where municipal meetings, elections, weddings and funerals may be held. “We welcome the public,” Dugan said. “We want them all here.”
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