10-27 PACKARD SALE

The Packard Tavern will soon change hands from one set of Pendleton High School graduates to another.

Dick Jones and Maureen McCormmach who graduated in 1964 and married in 2008 are selling the bar at 118 S.E. Court Ave. to Prodigal Son Brewery and Pub owners Tim Guenther and Matthew Barnes class of 1993.

While Guenther and Barnes will continue to operate the Prodigal, they said the Packard will stay separate from the brew pub and maintain its working-class feel.

Jones and McCormmach wanted to hand the tavern off to someone engrained in the community, and Guenther and Barnes were enticed by a business model that was polar opposite from the Prodigal.

The Packard is an institution and we like it how it is,?Guenther said. Weve already had the experience to build something from scratch.?

The Packard will still sell only beer and wine. McCormmach and Jones decided not to sell liquor to avoid creating a rough-and-tumble bar atmosphere.

Its a place where people from any level of society can come and relax,?McCormmach said.

Guenther and Barnes may fill a couple of the Packards 18 taps with Prodigal brews, but they will keep drink prices at their current rate of $2-$5. Guenther plans to use a different wine than Yellow Tail, which McCormmach has wanted to do for a while. They may eventually serve sports bar styled snacks.

The Packard will maintain its appearance minus a few personal pieces of art the couple will take home.

The tavern boasts a shuffleboard, jukebox, three pool tables, and five televisions that almost always show sports the product of Jones persona. In 1963, Parade Magazine?chose him as its first high school All-America quarterback. He received a journalism degree from University of Oregon on a full athletic and academic scholarship.

The business has been owned by three other Pendleton high school alumni who graduated with Jones and McCormmach. Business partners Leroy Nash and Bruce Hendricks owned it as the Packard in the 1970s, and PHS alumnus Jack Baird and his wife Kerry owned it as the Outback. In 2006 McCormmach and Jones purchased the business from Elvis Lemar and Chuck Ramey, who owned it as Chucks Elvis 2. They changed its name to the Packard which it had been called by two of its eight previous owners to honor a hotel that burned down after polling the community.

The sale will be complete in December when the Oregon Lottery and Oregon Liquor Control Commission finalize title changes and Jones and McCormmach have taught the brewmasters the ins-and-outs of running a tavern. Harold and Helen Graymer will continue to own the building.

After selling the business, McCormmach and Jones plan to travel. But like before they bought it theyll always spend time at the Packard.

Im looking at it like Ive always been down there and Ill always probably still be down there,?McCormmach said.

Contact Chris Rizer at crizer@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836.