Carson City landmark under new ownership

The name remains, but much else is new since Mo & Sluggo’s Bar & Grill changed hands.

New owners Dan Shaheen and Rowan Colgan, who bought the downtown Carson City landmark from Morey Tresnit last August, put in new floors, replaced the electrical work, remodeled the kitchen, redid the bathrooms, painted and added new furniture. They also installed a couple more televisions and applied for a restricted gaming license to add video slot machines to the bar.

Then there’s Tony’s Taco Truck, which is not really a truck but a tenant. In November, Scott Doerr, Tony Fish and Jayme Watts, owners of nearby Sassafras restaurant, opened the eatery inside the bar, using the remodeled kitchen to serve lunch and dinner.

Colgan and Shaheen are tenants, too, leasing the street-level space from Fred Jones, who owns the building and operates his insurance business from the second floor.

“It was a risky proposition, doing out-of-pocket (renovations) on another’s guy building,” says Colgan.

At least Colgan and Shaheen, who have been friends for nearly four decades, know their way around a gutted building. Shaheen, a property manager and leasing agent, is brother of Jeff Shaheen, co-founder of Shaheen Beauchamp Builders LLC. And Colgan built homes with his previous business, ADC Inc.

After the construction business took a nosedive, Colgan started bartending at Mo & Sluggo’s and still bar tends there Wednesday through Sunday.

The bar, located at the corner of Telegraph and Curry streets, is open seven days a week and Tony’s Taco Truck serves food Tuesday through Saturday. It’s a non-smoking establishment, another change instituted by the new owners.

“I didn’t know if I was cutting my own throat,” says Colgan. “But Dan and I decided we wanted it to be a place where everyone could be comfortable.”