Barra DeMarco restaurant in Oswego to close, reopen as Roadhouse 71

Oswego’s Barra Demarco restaurant will close for four weeks and reopen with a new focus and name: Roadhouse 71.

Opened early this year near the intersection of Route 71 and Washington Street in Oswego, Barra Demarco has served classic Italian fare, highlighted in a Shaw Media Mystery Diner review.

But a June 22 post to the restaurant’s Facebook page announced the restaurant will close for four weeks and undergo “some exciting renovations.”

A separate Facebook post by owner Jay DeMarco, shared by the Oswego Area Chamber of Commerce, announced the restaurant’s name will change to Roadhouse 71, shown in a logo with the subhead, “America’s Saloon.”

“Some things work, some don’t,” DeMarco’s post read. “Barra is a great concept in the wrong location!!! Time to do what we do best!!! Live music, video gaming, karaoke, trivia, bingo, great food & drinks in a family/friendly atmosphere. The bloody Mary’s will be over the top!!!”

In addition to owning Roadhouse 71, DeMarco also owns Yorkville Pinz, Kennedy Pointe Restaurant & Pub, and Roadhouse RTE 47, all in Yorkville.

When asked what prompted the shift in focus, DeMarco said the involved menu at Barra Demarco required a number of chefs and staff, something difficult to accomplish as the world recovers from COVID-19.

“Barra Demarco is … more fine dining, so you really have to have employees,” DeMarco said. “And right now, cooks are very few and far between. So, to really get the experience I want out of Barra DeMarco, I just need more staff. We do pizzas, pastas, entrees, so you need four or five cooks at a time. To only have two or three to try to accomplish the level of quality we want, just wasn’t happening.”

Falling in line with the similar concepts of DeMarco’s other restaurants enables workers to shift to a different location to help out if needed, he said.

For the shift to Roadhouse 71, DeMarco said the restaurant will adopt a country theme, with barn wood, pictures, classic country records and other “really cool stuff” on display.

“The people are there, the traffic’s there, it’s just ‘How do we get them in?’ So we gotta make it something that appeals to all age groups,” he said.

The problem with Barra Demarco and fine dining, he continued, was, “we only attract that one certain crowd that likes Italian food.”

“Now, we can market to kids, we can market to 21-30 year-olds, 30 and over, 70 and over, so now we hit a major market.”

Comparing the concept to Roadhouse 47, “but at another level,” DeMarco is hoping to establish a go-to bar/saloon for the 20-40 demographic, a bar for the younger generation.

“We’re gonna really try to appeal to being that local hangout,” he said.

With the addition of the revamped Roadhouse 71, DeMarco said that the purchase of an 18-to-24-passenger bus is in the works, to create a “Bar Crawl” consisting of Roadhouse 71, Roadhouse 47, Kennedy Pointe, and Yorkville Pinz.

The bus would start at Pinz and run from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m., stopping at a different bar every 30 minutes as a free shuttle, or as an “Uber” service for customers not looking to drive home after a night out.

DeMarco anticipates opening Roadhouse 71 in late July.