Marshall Street’s newest sports bar, DJ’s on the Hill, saw a successful opening weekend, reaching its capacity of 219 patrons on Saturday night.

‘It was fantastic, it was more than we even anticipated, especially with kids gone,’ said owner Dean Whittles.

DJ’s opened Thursday night in the former location of Maggies Restaurant and Sports Bar. Regular hours are noon to 2 a.m., but the restaurant will open earlier on game days. Whittles and his staff said the restaurant stands out on Marshall because of its unique, fresh menu items and a strict policy on IDing customers. Whittles has no connection to Maggies or its former owner.

The bar is decorated with circular tables printed with basketballs and footballs and a long high table in the center. Flat-screen televisions behind the bar and on the walls play sports all day, mainly college basketball in the winter season. A pool table and other game machines decorate the room, and there is a VIP lounge in the front corner with leather couches. Patrons can order food from a window or be served.

Bob Brown is DJ’s head cook. He owned his own pizza shop in Syracuse for 10 years before working at DJ’s. He makes everything fresh and brings in some different menu items, such as fried cheese curds and tater tots wrapped in bacon. He uses Grande cheese, which he calls the best cheese in the world.

The pizza is New York style and ranges in price from $10.50 to $16. The menu also features pasta dinners, hot and cold subs, calzones, wings, salads and appetizers. There aren’t any burgers on the menu because students can find those anywhere, Brown said.

The bar has 26 beers on tap. Prices hover around $8 to $10 a pitcher and $4 a glass, with special deals for certain beers. One deal is a pitcher of Yuengling and 10 wings for $10, and the bar has a 2-for-1 deal on Tuesdays.

Most major glitches were worked out throughout a four-week opening preparation and a soft opening for friends and family on Wednesday night, said Mike Sowan, day manager and bartender. One problem they discovered during the Wednesday opening: no corkscrew.

Whittles began the process of purchasing Maggies former property and securing proper restaurant licensing in April, he said. He is new to the restaurant business but owns three hair studios across Syracuse.

Maggies closed and lost its liquor license after a raid in April 2009 by the Liquor Authority, Syracuse Police Department, the New York State Police and the Onondaga County Sherriff’s Office, according to an April 16 article in The Daily Orange. Police issued approximately 150 underage drinking citations during the raid, and four bartenders were arrested for serving alcohol to minors, according to an April 1 article in The Daily Orange.

Whittles and his staff have a strict message for students: DJ’s is not a place for underage drinking. He plans to have four bouncers on any given weekend night, with state-of-the-art scanners that recognize licenses from all 50 states. Students under 21 cannot enter the bar after 3 p.m.

Students did try to get in with fake IDs, but there were no major problems when people were turned away, Whittles said.

There is a possibility of setting up a takeout area for students under 21 at the entrance to the bar, said Sowan, the day manager and bartender. But Whittles and his staff stress their strictness in providing a safe environment for students over 21. They want 21-year-olds to have a place to drink without underage students, and they want to prevent a closing from another raid.

‘We want to emphasize, emphasize, emphasize we’re 21 and over,’ Sowan said. ‘We are not the old Maggies.’

kronayne@syr.edu

A previous version of this article appeared on dailyorange.com on Dec. 29. 

Published on January 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm