Lost dog sotry brings in patrons to new bar

Peter Murphy, part owner of a new bar and grill in Sparks, was driving to work one day this month when he saw a small white dog wandering alone along the street.

There were few houses nearby and he knew the dog had to be lost.

"The last thing I wanted to see on my way home was a dead dog by the side of the road," he said.

So Murphy stopped, picked up the pooch and spent some of the next two days going to door to door in the neighborhood trying to find the owner.When Murphy finally knocked on the right door, he found one distraught but very grateful woman.

"She offered to give me an award and I said no, then she promised to come in," to the bar and grill, he said.

A few days later she called to say she had a better idea: She was going to take out a newspaper ad to show her gratitude and hopefully get Murphy and his relatively new bar a little publicity.

And so she did.

The ad ran in the Reno-Gazette Journal's dog classifieds and called Murphy a hometown hero who saved her three-pound Maltese.

He wouldn't accept anything in return, the ad read, so instead she hoped dog lovers would visit Murphy's Aspen Glen Bar & Grill on Vista Boulevard.

"It's great.We don't have a big budget for advertising," he said.

And it worked.

"A table of four and a table of two have come in and told us they saw the ad," said Murphy.

"It was their first time in the restaurant."

The Aspen Glen Bar & Grill opened in December 2002 in the shopping center of the same name near fast-growing Spanish Springs.

Murphy, a Nevada native and graduate of University of Nevada, Reno, owns the bar with partner John Chisolm and a third investor.

Murphy joined Chisolm in the venture after finding himself out of work when the Little Waldorf changed ownership last year.

Murphy, who had worked with Chisolm there, had managed the college bar for six years.

The Aspen Bar & Grill is a 2,000- square-foot restaurant designed to appeal to both men and women, said Murphy.

ESPN and other channels show sports on the four televisions over the bar.

But the TVs aren't hardwired to sports stations, said Murphy, and Monday nights they all show a movie that he rents at the mall's video store.

Tables around the bar are clad in white linen table clothes.

The menu is a mix of steak, wraps, sandwiches and salads, as well as bar food such as chicken wings, onion rings and cheese bread.

The partners have applied for a gaming license in order to install a dozen or so video slots in the bar.

They decided to do it themselves rather than hire a slot route operator since Murphy knows how to repair the slots.

"Honestly, I couldn't see paying the operator when we could do it ourselves," said Murphy.

But that means a wait of at least a few months while their application is being processed before they can equip the bar with machines.

"A lot of people have asked when they're going in," said Murphy.

"It is a deterrent for people coming here."

But Murphy said the bar and grill is holding its own in the meantime "We'll stay alive until the gaming comes in," he said.

And as long as dog lovers hear about it from a very grateful pint-sized Maltese.