Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tony/Rita Krueger. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tony/Rita, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The Kenney Store was a sleepy little beer joint that served this small community for years. Constructed in 1887, it certainly saw a lot of history. Tony and Rita both had Law Enforcement Careers, but Rita was looking for something that she literally “dreamed about”. On a trip to dinner they stopped by to see Tony’s cousin, who happened to be working there that night and when Rita walked in, she knew that this was the place. Three weeks later, they opened the doors as the new owners.

Tony/Rita, 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?

Knowing that the local community gathered at The Kenney Store for literally all events: weddings, funerals, birthdays, baby showers, holiday events, etc. and knowing that we wanted to add music. It was a balancing act. KARMA (Kenney Area Rural Music Association) was an open mic/bring your own instrument circle that was held on Thursday’s at the Store. We wanted to keep that and add to it, so we started having live bands on Friday and Saturday nights and 4 months later added the commercial kitchen and now we have a full blown music venue. This year we celebrate 10 years and have been nominated by the Texas Country Music Association for Music Venue of the Year.

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

When Covid hit, it was tragic to every business, but especially to the music and food business. At that point, we knew we could only seat 25-50% capacity inside and would not survive, so we started doing everything outside. We had an outdoor area, that we started adding onto, kept hiring bands, and literally survived during one of the most trying times.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Tony and I were both in Law Enforcement. At the time he started with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, he started as a Jailer, and I was a Street Deputy with the same agency. I was bringing a Prisoner in to be booked on charges on his very first day, so Tony’s line to everyone on how we met is:
We met in Jail.
He rarely explains the rest – just to see how people react.

Contact Info:

• Website: Thekenneystore.com
• Instagram: Thekenneystore
• Facebook: The Kenney store
• Youtube: The Kenney store
• Yelp: The Kenney store

Image Credits
Maddie Krueger