Brocks carry Loyal’s root beer stand into new era
By Valorie Brecht After Randy and Lori Seliskar decided to wrap up their time as owners of Schecky’s Snack Shack in Loyal late last summer, they were looking for someone to take over the business. Thankfully, a couple stepped up to fill in the gap: Greg and Jenni Brock.
The Brocks are longtime residents of Loyal themselves and had the downtown fast food restaurant on their mind.
“Years ago, we told them (Randy and Lori) if they ever wanted to sell, to contact us. And the timing was just perfect,” said Jenni.
The Brocks made an offer last August and officially bought the property on Jan. 2. They opened for business May 24 and haven’t looked back.
Jenni has wanted to work in food service ever since she was in high school. She was a waitress at Spanky’s Bear Creek Inn in Loyal in the 1990s and learned a lot from Spanky’s mom, Doris Williams, who was the full-time cook.
Greg does not have a food service background; however, he has sold plenty of concessions with the Loyal Athletic Booster Club and said the environment is similar when there’s a rush of people waiting to be served. He also understands the importance of customer service, having operated his own construction business for many years.
The couple decided to go with the name “The RootBeer Stand” because that’s what everyone in town has called it for years, so they didn’t want to reinvent the wheel.
They have a full crew of employees, consisting of 13 high school/college-age students. Some are returners from previous summers, which Jenni said has been helpful.
“The girls coming back are key. They are a lot of my success because they know and they’re running it out there,” said Jenni.
The Brocks have also had the guidance and advice of the Seliskars to lean on, even as they work to make the business their own.
“They’ve helped us a lot,” said Greg. “They’ve been amazing. Even physically driving by and seeing we’re busy, hopping in and helping out,” said Jenni.
“A lot of times you buy something and you’re on your own right away. But they’ve offered to help us,” Greg continued. “It’s a peace of mind.”
Knowing how successful the restaurant has been in the past, the Brocks haven’t changed much from the Seliskars’ business model, taking an “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” approach. The menu items are the same, other than a few burgers were renamed and they added a Philly cheese steak sandwich. They also plan to rotate through various specialty ice cream flavors, with a non-dairy option, as people appreciate that.
The Brocks said it has been a learning curve as far as knowing what quantities of items to buy and how quickly items will sell. Jenni said a truck comes every week but there have been a few quick mid-week trips to Eau Claire to purchase items they started getting low on.
They said the first couple of weeks have been a whirlwind, but a good experience. They’ve had pretty much a steady stream of customers from open to close.
“We want to thank the customers for their patience as I’m trying to time orders, and just learning,” said Jenni.
“Everyone has been very patient and understanding that way. Part of it is us learning, and a lot of it is we’re busy,” Greg said.
Greg said probably 75-80% of the customers are local, but there’s also a good number that stop while passing through town. They’ve also had customers from the surrounding area, such as Granton, Neillsville and Stratford.
As they reflected on how it’s gone so far, the Brocks were very much grateful.
“The community response has been amazing, better than we could have ever imagined,” said Jenni. “We’ve had a number of people come up and say ‘thank you’ for keeping this going.”
The RootBeer Stand’s hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 3-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Search “RootBeer Stand Loyal” on Facebook or call 715-503-1004 for more information.
To left, Greg and Jenny Brock are the new owners of The RootBeer Stand. Above, patrons gather for burgers, fries, ice cream and more on May 24, when the restaurant opened for the season.
VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS
