A new bar will open its doors in downtown Wrightsville Beach Friday, Aug. 15.
With the 40th anniversary of Red Dogs approaching in 2015, owner Charlie Maultsby is turning over the first floor of the bar to Jimmy Gilleece, who is planning to reopen the establishment under the name Jimmy’s at Red Dogs.
“I wanted to keep that connection with Red Dogs but I need to let everybody know it’s a different place,” Gilleece said. “This is the original Red Dogs downstairs so I wouldn’t want to be the guy that closed down original Red Dogs after 40 years.”
When it first opened in 1975, Red Dogs did not have the same dance club vibe for which it is known today. Maultsby recalled the bar going through several distinct phases over the years.
“At first I just had the downstairs open and the top was apartments,” he said. “It was beach music until ’82 or ’83. Then we kind of switched over to surf music and a little bit of dance music like Michael Jackson. Now it’s pretty much all dance and hip hop.”
While the original Red Dogs was only the first floor, in recent years it was the second floor that attracted most of the business. Maultsby said he only needed to open up the first floor of the bar during busy summer months.
“And it was like, I’m spending money paying rent on it and we didn’t need it,” Maultsby said. “I asked [Jimmy], ‘Are you interested in the downstairs?’ And he said, ‘Yeah,’ so I subleased it to him.”
Gilleece was eager to run his own bar after years of bartending around Wilmington. With four established bars in such close proximity in downtown Wrightsville Beach, he said it was important to bring something new to the scene.
“I think I’m going to have a country night on Wednesdays, have one-man acoustic stuff,” he said during a July 31 phone interview. “Maybe open up the front of it, fresh air.”
Gilleece’s updates included major renovations to the interior. To receive a commercial ABC permit, Gilleece had to permanently close the door leading to the second floor. He installed new TVs on the walls, removed the existing booths, made upgrades to the bathrooms and built a rustic new countertop out of wood from a recently demolished barn. He left certain elements of the original building intact, including a safe that dated back to the 1930s when the room was used as a pharmacy.
Gilleece said bringing something new to the scene was not only beneficial to his own business but also highly encouraged by the owners of nearby establishments such as Jerry Allen’s Sports Bar and Grille, 22 North Restaurant and Lagerheads Tavern. Maultsby explained the unofficial agreement that existed between the businesses’ management.
“The only thing we discussed when Jimmy took over was, I said, ‘You can’t do anything to compete directly with me,’” Maultsby said, “and he doesn’t want to. Everybody down here has their own little niche and everybody’s got their own clientele.”
Co-owner of Jerry Allen’s Sports Bar and Grille, Kelly Baucom, said the bar owners operate as more of a team than competition, and the excitement surrounding Gilleece’s new bar would most likely bring more business to the surrounding bars as well.
“When you’re down at the beach you’re never going to just go to one place,” Baucom said during an Aug. 12 phone interview. “You’re going to venture around and see what else is going on. … The more people that come to our area, the more business it’s going to create all the way around.”
Gilleece said he expects to attract a slightly older crowd than Red Dogs upstairs.
“We’re having longer hours, open from noon to 2 in the morning,” he said. “The target would be maybe late 20s up to 60s. … It’s just going to evolve and you have to go with the flow. It’s probably what Red Dogs originally started out as.”
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