We were lucky to catch up with Melissa Monno recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Melissa, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Sidecar Supper Club & Beer Garden

Background of why it’s Sidecar… Yep, it’s a dandy cocktail but more importantly it is a motorcycle! For me, it’s a symbol of adventure, and the reason I decided to try my hand at owning a business. You’ll see in the logo that the ^D^ has ears, they stand for Dante, my first canine co-pilot. The two of us travelled through 27 states and 2 Canadian provinces together. That adventure began on the road out into the Western US in July of 2014, mostly camping, sometimes a motel, sometimes a kind stranger that offered a hot meal, shower and a roof over our heads. The goal was to find a job before winter and eventually relocate out West. We travelled for 4 months straight and as winter approached, without a job secured, we headed home with the intention to return to the road next year to continue the quest.

In June of 2015, about to head out again, it rained. It rained a lot. Record amounts of rain and there wasn’t much of a dry timeframe to get out of dodge with my dog on the bike. I got antsy and randomly found an advertisement for a bar for sale and I called with the intention to ‘pretend to buy a bar’, in efforts to desmystify the process, for a future endeavor. After seeing the location, it just felt right. Good energy. Lovely little rivertown. Historic building. Full of potential. I put an offer in, but still hit the road. About a month or so later, somewhere down South, I got the call that the offer was accepted if I wanted to move forward and Dante and I were homeward bound.

The name of the company was River’s Edge Bar and Grill and we bought it as a turnkey operation. It wasn’t at the edge of the river and it really wasn’t much of a grill back then. After all was said and done we started the business with $50 left in the bank and was rather accidentally in trouble with the local law enforcement on the first day we took the keys. It was a rough start. After years of improving the quality of the food, drink and entertainment, we became a trusted community space for a broader, more inclusive crowd.

Our neighbors helped keep us alive when we shifted into curbside service and we were quick to shift our menu to flexible family style meals to feed as many plates as you’d like to serve. We coined it ‘Curbside Supper Club’ and when we re-opened for service we brought back our main menu and kept the family style concept around, hence the supper club.

I found it the right time to rebrand my business in the middle of the pandemic. Do or die. In January of 2021 we became Sidecar Supper Club & Beer Garden. We were closed indoors for a full year, and I pieced together a full remodel by myself. Painting, wallpapering, redecorating: I spent little money as I had been collecting things for previous years, I wallpapered with free maps from inquiries to the DOT in every state, vintage photos of women and families on sidecars, furnishings from my own home growing up, I wanted it to feel like home. Patience, legwork, and some help from my friends and co-workers putting their own details into the environment and for the first time we had the cozy space I had envisioned.

Melissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve worked in the restaurant business since my very first job in 1999. I was a singing, dancing waitress, wearing a bowtie and a butcher hat in a 50s style diner. I went to school for Journalism and would always bounce back into the hospitality industry between summers and for supplemental income after graduating in 2004. I met my partner through the industry and we have lived, loved and worked together for 17 years. I worked my way up into a management position in 2013.

My brand is an amalgamation of everything I’ve learned through different styles of establishments through the years. I have an open-door, open-heart philosophy to leadership and I only ask that everyone that works for me adheres to two things. 1. Be accountable for your actions. We’re human and we can fix any problem that arises. Equally, if you did something awesome, own it, accept the praise, run with it and grow! 2. I want you to want to be here. Enjoy the time you’re at work and let it show. People should hear your smile over the phone. If you lost that feeling for our mission, carry on, I support your growth as an individual.

My brand is timeless and transportive in feel, a classy neighborhood dive, where everybody know your name. But add music. And dogs. And motorcycles.

We took a few years to get to know the history and climate of the town and with that in mind made some changes and did eventually we were able to do whatever the heck we wanted. We can host a Queer Prom one night, a metal show another night. We host a local folk art show and an educational lyceum every month. We support local, live music four nights a week. New musicians can play their first show in public, full bands can to play in a unique venue with a captive audience under the stars. Our weekly Bluegrass Sunday show has people dancing in the street, we even have a regular named Zoey, a dancing dog! It’s the people who found us, and found each other that really make our brand something special. Something for literally, everyone. Something that builds community.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Let’s talk about the early days of COVID.

By now you know I risked changing the name of the business in early 2021 after 5 years of adopting the name that came with the purchase. There’s a bit more to the story of how we kept the business alive.

We hosted our final Bluegrass Sunday on March 15th, 2020. Folks were on both side of the spectrum. The event was live but we also streamed it live to folks at home so they could be with us if they were already feeling uncomfortable. We got our last hugs in to our regulars, our family! The team which was about 15 people, was now down to 4 of us. Our salaried FOH and BOH managers and my partner and I. We had the foresight to kill our main menu and only offer family style meals. A selection of entrees and sides to pick and choose from that would change every week. We started with comfort foods perfect for soul, and we continued to change it often with our grandmother’s recipes and exploring cultures on the other side of the globe (this practice inspired us and our Chef to move forward with starting a second business two years later with the concept of ‘Globally Inspired Small Plates’ our sister restaurant, Mirus has now been open for 9 months! Fun fact: this business contains a penny farthing bike, which I now own and ride around town too)
We bought Twistee cans and canned off kegs of beer, I created colorful weekly menus with photos to share through any means of social media I could, we created silly commercials for celebrating Thanksgiving with videos of dogs dressed up and our hands coming through their clothes eating turkey with a fork and knife, I wore ridiculous rainbow colored clothing and wore roller skates to deliver food curbside, I offered delivery with a hotbox on the luggage rack of my sidecar motorcycle, I purchased 1000 sunglasses with our new logo that would refract rainbow hearts in points of light at night. I was staying in business providing goods and smiles while we couldn’t provide much in the way of service.
When we were able to serve outdoors we still had a barebones staff and I put my roller derby skills to use and would roller skate with trays of food and beer up and down the street, attempting to do the work of at least 3 people. It was rather entertaining and inspired kids to come down with scooters and beg their parents to buy them skates and race up and down the street. (Nope, never spilled more than a few drops a beer!) Parents and kids alike made new friends and supported the work we were doing.
We brought back our normal programming but provided it as free family entertainment three nights a week, supporting local musicians, our weekly trivia game increased tenfold to the point folks began bringing their own tables and chairs and snacks when we ran out room and sometimes food!
When fall hit, I turned our beer garden into a fall festival with hay bales and wool blankets. We stayed outdoors even when it got colder around heaters and fire pits and and musicians were happy to play so long as their instruments would stay tuned. Trivia players would put whole teams under umbrellas if it snowed or drizzled and kept coming out.
We remained closed indoors for nearly an entire year and opened back up as a newly remodeled, cozy little neighborhood pub, with a new name.
Behind the scenes we had applied for every means of financial aid we could find, we provided full catered meals through non-profits providing food to organizations, fed our friends and families when the sales weren’t there. Without faltering or skipping a beat we made it through, brought back our full menu and carried on.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

The evening of February 10, 2018 was an epic night for our business. A turning point! After 3 years the feedback for our food and drinks and entertainment selections was on the up and up. This particular evening was special because the musician playing was a regular, who had recently quit his corporate job to become a full time musician and this was his first show to the public as a full time musician. Happy tears, good times.

So you had to imagine my surprise when I was woken out of a dead sleep the next morning by a bartender working the previous evening, upset about a bad review she had seen posted. It was posted to a Facebook group called ‘What’s Happening in Batavia” a public group where 38K people get notified of things like special events, lost dogs, traffic hazards, ya know… things happening in town. Not the place for reviewing a business. But there it was. A post from a man named Tim, if you clicked on him his profile photo was of 3 men donning middle fingers, and the banner photo contained a good amount of firearms. He slammed us for service and burnt burgers and tots for the entire population of the town and then some to see. Unfair. Especially because I served this table and knew exactly what happened, and I knew they never mentioned a problem from start to finish. Unfair. I would have my say, so I began to craft a response in an hour earlier than I am usually awake.

During that time, a good amount of people commented and most of them had my back, saying they had good experiences in the past, maybe it was an off night, and generally ‘did you ask for a manager’ and ‘this doesn’t belong here’

My response was long and heartfelt and little bit snarky and it won the internet that day. 1000 reactions and 300 comments came through, and Tim hid. He took his post down.

The comments from my post literally made me cry!

“Now this is how a business owner should be. Every single business can have an off night just like we as humans have our own off days. I’m not sure why people seem to forget that sometimes when going into establishments. Your response was perfection of honesty and humility and a lesson many of us can take to heart. Melissa Monno I will be visiting your local spot soon as I do believe in supporting our community just as you said. Thank you for this post today!!”
“Melissa, I don’t know you. I’ve never been to your establishment. And I never saw Tim’s post. But your response was THE definition of perfection, and I’ve literally added your restaurant to my ‘must check out’ list. Bravo! Way to be the light in a world full of darkness. You go girl”
“From one small business owner to another….bravo Melissa!! Owning a business and putting your blood, sweat, and tears into it is truly something few fully understand unless they’ve done it. Bravo to you for not only an incredibly classy response, but also for standing up for yourself, your business, and your employees. While I have never been to your place before I cannot wait to try it now and become a long time patron.”

On and on with comments like this. It resulted in a major upturn in business, new ride or die regulars, and a radio interview on WBBM Newsradio about ‘Turning lemons into lemonade’

It was risk a for sure, but so has most of this wild ride in business ownership! (un?)Fortunately the negative comment doesn’t exist to share, but below was my response that started the windfall of support:

“Good morning Batavia! Good Morning Tim. I’m not sure if the original post is deleted, perhaps the moderators will allow my response to remain…
Tim, you probably were not aware but your server last night, was the owner. Me! Hello, I’m Melissa and I value your opinion.
I do remember that I messed up and brought the wrong sides with some of your medium-well burgers… tots, not fries and I believe I offered a quick solution with a large plate of fries (which we cut from actual potatoes, right in house) for your table to share, and upon dropping it off I said to consider it a bottomless plate; if you wanted more, I would gladly provide. Though I run a family business, I come from a strict school of corporate background where the 2-bite / 2-minute check back is always in my head. Perhaps I mistakingly got the impression when I stopped to bring drink refills that everything was good, since no one alerted me to anything and the plates were pretty much clean upon me clearing them later.
Perhaps I was a bit distracted. For that I apologize. We had a big night ahead! One of the other things that we do here, past the killer craft beer list and locally-sourced menu, is support local musicians. Last night was like a fairy tale story, so I’m going to divert for a moment and tell everyone a delightful anecdote.
Last night a patron turned regular, a regular turned friend, made his debut with his band at our little corner of the community last night. I’ve sat with this man outside on River Street in the early morning hours after the bar closed, listening to him strum, talking about life. This man came to open mic when we hosted them, played solo as part of our Tuesday Nite Local Spotlight (6-8pm every week folks), and recently started playing in a band with 2 other very talented musicians whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with here and in the community. I was super psyched for this show, and for him, because this guy just quit his day job to pursue a lifelong dream of being a musician. He’s taking chances and giving it everything. And he and the band absolutely killed it! The energy in this place was absolutely beautiful. That gumption that gusto, that is something I respect, something I’m honored to be part of and help nurture.
It’s something I can relate to.
I am giving the River’s Edge Bar & Grill, everything. I am a server, bartender, cook, dishwasher, maintenance woman, toilet cleaner, snow shoveler, etc… This is my home, my family. You are my community, my friends. I support all things local. We attend and sponsor and provide food and beer to local events. Our staff dines and shops locally.
Local, supports local, supports local. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s not flawless. We’re not flawless, but I’ll keep doing the best I can. Hey Everyone, from my family run business and all and all the other business owners trying to do a good thing and make it in this crazy, social media driven, fickle, fickle world, please consider first taking us aside and let us know your grievances at the time of the problem. If I don’t do my best to fix the problem, maybe then let tens of thousands other people in the area know about your experience.
Tim, thanks for directing many eyes on us this morning. Hi Everyone! Please stop in anytime to try our delightfully eclectic, locally-sourced, chef-prepared, menu! Chef’s Specials that change daily, craft beer that in some cases you can’t find anywhere else around! Ask to meet my super awesome sidecar-riding pup. Come spring/summer, ask me for a sidecar ride! You sit back and munch on some tater tots and we’ll take a spin through the country… I just thought of of that off the top of my head… but I’m so down for this!
Today…ya’ll should play in the snow, be safe, and come down later for Bluegrass Sundays (5-8pm every week folks! If we pack the place, I bet we could convince the River Valley Rangers to stay til 9!)
And for the record, I’m opening a new case of tots for service today, in case I had a bad batch. If you come by today, ask for me, I’ll bring you an order of those magical little fried potato puffs on the house 🙂 Thanks to those who read to end! Cheers!”

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.sidecarsupperclub.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidecarsupperclub/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidecarsupperclub

Image Credits
April Duda, Katie O’Brien