A staff member cleans the windows of The Snug, a bar in Portland’s East End, on Friday, October 30, 2020. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
A new sports bar is set to open in Portland’s East End where The Snug is closing.
Sasha Salzberg, Evan Carroll, and Ian Daly hope to have Jerome’s up and running in January. Their focus will be airing New England sports games, but patrons will also find snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing on the TVs. The partners said they saw a void when Rivalries closed its Portland location in February 2022.
“There’s a need for a sports bar in Portland,” Daly said. “It’s just a bar I’d like to hang out at.”
Margaret Lyons, owner of The Snug, announced Wednesday on social media that she will close the longtime “Irish-ish” pub on Congress Street. She said that she met “three lovely people” with plans for the space but did not reveal any details.
“They have a new vision, but I have the utmost faith that you’ll love what they get up to!” Lyons wrote on Instagram.
Jerome’s is named for Daly’s father, a big sports fan who died when Daly was 13. The owners said in the cover letter for their liquor license application that they would offer a full bar and a small food menu of cold sandwiches, salads, and snacks. They plan to operate Thursday through Monday.
“We hope our aesthetic and management approach will link the East End Neighborhood with the New England pro-sports culture, Maine outdoor adventure culture, and urban boarding culture in an atmosphere that welcomes all to ‘come as you are,’ ” Salzberg wrote in the letter.
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Salzberg and Carroll, who are married and have two children, own a local architecture firm. Salzberg and Daly have bartended together in the past.
“We know that we all work well together, and we each have a different skill set that lends itself to doing something like this,” Salzberg said.
The partners all live within walking distance of the bar. Salzberg and Carroll previously worked at a nearby architecture firm when The Snug first opened in 2006 and said it was a favorite gathering spot at the end of the day.
“We were lucky that The Snug didn’t open until 5 p.m.,” Carroll joked, or else their work would never have been finished on time.
The partners said they love that The Snug is a neighborhood spot and want to keep it that way.
“We would like it to be a spot that, if a tourist hears about it, they hear about it from a local,” Daly said. “We want it to be local first and tourist second.”
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