GORDIES BAR • New Sports Bar Brings Fresh Sparkle to Downtown Saginaw

There is an intoxicating energy emanating from the historic Bancroft Apartment building, sparkling  proudly in the core of the Downtown Saginaw business district on the corner of Genesee & Washington this holiday season as the newly renovated, refurbished, and re-invented GORDIES  Bar & Restaurant prepares to open its doors to the public on November 26^th with a soft opening on Thanksgiving evening, followed by their official Grand Opening on December 1^st.

The culmination of a three year journey marking a new beginning for the owner/management team of Ben Hyatt and Bostyn Drapp, this dynamic duo of visionary and committed entrepreneurs hope to amp up the excitement and amenities available in Downtown Saginaw to a level found in larger metropolitan areas like Detroit and Ann Arbor with their newly re-imagined full service restaurant, bar, and entertainment establishment, which fills an enormous void in the heart and soul of the city since the legendary Bourbon & Co. closed its doors in August 2019.

Gordies Bar is casting their wider net to cater to Saginaw Spirit fans, basing their name on famous Red Wings legend Gordie Howe  and visual imagery linked to Saginaw’s storied hockey history with the Saginaw Spirit and Saginaw Gears, but intend to also design special events and dinner specials, along with eventually bringing live entertainment into the mix, in order to appeal to a broad array of interests and demographics.

“Our primary goal is to be a place to go for great drinks, good food, good times, and unforgettable nights out,” reflects Hyatt. “We’re trying to blend classic neighborhood charm with a modern twist, offering a welcoming space where friends, families, and coworkers can gather. From great cocktails and ice-cold beers to weekly events, live entertainment, and game-day specials, Gordies is more than just a bar, it’s a community hub.” 

From Dream to Vision to Reality

“I own a bar and grill up north on Lake George in Clare County and before that I started a building Foundation repair company and cut my teeth on that business before getting into the bar game about three years ago. I fell in love with the numbers side of it,” explains  Hyatt. “Everybody says it’s the hardest industry with new bars and restaurants constantly coming in and going out, and we realize how hard it can be and how you have to white knuckle it with these numbers and employee turnover, but the challenge is what makes it fun for us.”

Ben and Bostyn started looking at the location back in October 30^th of 2023, prior to the Saginaw Spirit hosting the Memorial Cup,  which is when they had their first walk-through. “This location offered about the same amount of space as the grill we operate on Lake George, only here we decided to offer what we like to call ‘elevated level’ bar food,” he continues. “We offer some pretty unique food items at our Northern grill as well, but aren’t offering as many special items up there as we will at Gordie’s, although both places have a similar set-up.”

The menu at Gordies Bar will offer a variety of custom burgers and fresh salads, along with several specialty items.  “We didn't reinvent the wheel with anything here, but are focused on bringing in some unique flavors. We’ be offering several top-flight varieties of Poutine's because we certainly wanted to tailor several items for the Canadian hockey crowd, so are dialing that in and I think that’s going to  be a hit down here,” he continues.

“For the first month at least we want to focus on the core menu and hit that 400-yards every single time people order those items, but then we’ll move past that and get into serving different special menu items,” adds Bostyn. “If there are certain special events down at the Temple Theatre or happening at the Dow Even Center, we’ll tailor items to those events.  For example, if there’s a concert by the. Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra you’ll see something like a pasta and wine dinner special.”

As for their drink and cocktail menu, the team says they intend to offer mainstay heavy hitters and drinks that everyone enjoys, but will also offer several higher-end wines and bourbons tailored for the Temple Theatre crowd. “We want to feature drinks that everyone can enjoy and know whatever type of evening they are planning, they can come here and enjoy all types and varieties of cocktails at different price ranges, in addition to ten different draft beers on tap,” he continues.

Because Gordies is aligning themselves with The Saginaw Spirit as a hockey themed Sports Bar, they are also able to align themselves with all variety of sporting events.  “If people can’t get tickets to the Spirit games, we found a network where we can stream their games, so if they happen to be playing in Winnipeg we can also feature the game here. We’re having talks with the Spirit because we would like to kind of become the official ‘Watch Party’ place, but right now everything is informal and there isn’t a formal partnership as far as that goes.”

An imminent void that Gordies Bar intends to fill is to focus their talents upon the lunch crowd.  “There’s a few places in downtown Saginaw that are only open on certain days and certain hours, so we intend to have our kitchen open seven days a week from 11 AM to 10 PM,” states Hyatt.  “That way, if you want to get your favorite kale Caesar salad on Wednesday at noon you can go and snag a quick lunch.  If the Saginaw Spirit or Temple Theatre are staging special events we’ll keep the kitchen open later for those types of events”

Gordie’s is also intent upon developing their own type of theme-oriented events and also hope to feature live bans and DJ’s in the near future. “Our first month or two the goal is to get the food out fast and make sure it’s prepared properly before we delve into the entertainment side, but I’m excited about developing theme oriented events, so if someone like Jerry Seinfeld is performing at the Dow we can have a Seinfeld themed event and things like that,” notes Ben.

Considerable Challenges, Immense Cooperation

The poet  T.S. Eliot once said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go,” and this thought came to my mind when asked I asked Ben and Bostyn about the biggest challenges faced throughout the laborious process of transforming this ambitious project into a reality.

“The way things were sitting lease-wise here and with capital on my end, it just wasn't something  that was going to work out at that time three years ago when I did my first walk through,” explains Ben. “It ended up being mid-January of 2025 that we came back and took a peek and steadily for months we were trying to get this deal together, because the big issue was getting this full commercial kitchen and exhaust system installed throughout a 200-year old building. Previously,  they didn’t have a full kitchen, so you couldn’t get the stove hot enough to cook fast enough. That was a big issue and I wasn’t going to get myself into a situation where I would try to take a half-way approach to serving food.”

“There were so many pieces we had to pull together it was like trying to jam a square peg into a circle,” adds Bostyn. “We had to deal with structural engineers and mechanical inspectors and the list goes on. You’ve got a beautiful building but also a building that was built in the mid-1800s,  so that certainly comes with challenges  when you're blowing 16-inch holes into walls in order to throw this monstrosity of an exhaust system into this beautiful building. It took a lot of planning.”

“Bostyn is my best friend and he’s lived here in Saginaw for years,” concludes Ben. “I’ve  been around certainly, but to start to do a business in this city and receive so much enthusiastic support from so many people has been an amazing experience.”

“We haven’t even opened our doors yet and Saginaw has been 100% supportive and very welcoming, which has been unbelievable. You don't find that kind of support happening every day and it’s been greatly appreciated.”