By Kady Cramer
Established almost 40 years ago, the original Bogey’s Bar & Grill (located in what is now Conroy’s at 129th and State Line Road) was geared towards golfers who gathered from nearby Blue Hills Country Club. Now with a new name – Bogey’s Windy City Pub – and at its current location off 131st and State Line Road, the restaurant and bar is thriving under the sole ownership of industry veteran Niki Haberstroh.
Previous owner and Chicago native Gary Withers took ownership of Bogey’s in September of 2017, reinventing the atmosphere with a Chicago sports flair and renaming it Windy City Pub. When he moved the business two blocks south In 2019, he combined the names and brought back the Bogey’s logo. As he approached retirement, Withers sought to pass on ownership.
Haberstroh started serving in restaurants and local diners at the age of 16. After turning 21, she shifted to establishments with more of a bar scene. Taking a position at Coach’s on 103rd and Wornall, Haberstroh found her niche for over a decade.
With no plans of leaving her position at Coach’s, an unfortunate flooding caused the establishment to close in the Summer of 2017.
“We were notorious for flooding because we were right along Indian Creek,” says Haberstroh. I personally had been through four floods with that location. But we would bounce back. We would go in, do a good cleaning, maybe some remodeling, and open in a couple days. But in the 2017 flood, the owners of the building at the strip mall decided not to reopen the business.”
A new Coach’s location opened in August of 2020 on College and Metcalf and the owner was able to talk Haberstroh into helping with the opening as well as staying on through January of 2021.
Haberstroh was introduced to Withers through a mutual ‘regular’ customer in 2019 and soon came to work for Bogey’s in February 2021 as front of house manager and a bartender.
By May of 2021 talks were in the works for Withers to retire and for Haberstroh to take over as owner.
“I didn’t really feel comfortable doing it by myself at the time, but then they introduced me to who would be my partner {Dan Creach},” said Haberstroh. He had a lot of experience, so we came into it together.”
By November of 2021, Haberstroh and Creach were co-owners of the pub. However, it didn’t take long for Haberstroh to come into her own and for Creach to pursue his own ventures, leaving Bogey’s as co-owner in October of 2022.
“I was apprehensive to own it by myself at first. Things were straight out of Covid and just getting back to normal.”
Haberstroh’s concerns would soon be put to rest by staff and customer support.
“The great part of it is that the regulars I had at Coach’s are also regulars at Bogey’s. When I started working here, I remember being all nervous my first day and I walk in and I’m literally looking out at all the customers like ‘I know everybody’.”
While customers called Bogey’s their favorite happy hour or place to meet friends and watch the game, Haberstroh wanted people to come for the food too.
“When I first started working here, the food was just okay. Everything was out of a box or a bag and that was one of the biggest motivations to change the menu. One of our drives was to move to a ‘scratch kitchen’.”
A new menu surfaced in 2022 featuring local distributors, meats and produce. Haberstroh also took on a new chef to aid in the rollout.
Head chef and assistant kitchen manager Mike Mollison joined kitchen manager Doug Salmon in August of 2022 to help revert the menu back to home cooked meals that Haberstroh refers to as diner classics. While the menu would stay mostly the same, the ingredients and way items were prepared became drastically improved.
“We’re at the point now where 90% of our menu is made in-house. And that gets people talking…when they know that it’s made fresh and it’s not someone else’s product.”
In addition to a full bar, menu items include appetizers such as Bogey’s Signature Wings, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, desserts, and more. The pub’s Taste of Chicago combines Italian beef with an authentic Chicago style dog with all the trimmings on a poppyseed bun. The classic Bogey Dillas features seasoned beef or chicken and melted jack cheese, served with sour cream and salsa.
Bogey’s Windy City Pub is open Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to 12 a.m., Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. For more information visit bogeyswindycitypub.com.