Dumb Luck Pub & Grill aims to welcome families to hidden space in Hinesburg
HINESBURG ― A new pub has moved into the off-the-beaten-path space that housed another pub in this southern Chittenden County town, with plans to veer more toward a restaurant that has a bar rather than the other way around.
What is the place?
What had been Bucky’s Pub eased gradually into the Dumb Luck Pub & Grill after Ed and Patricia Boldwin bought the business from Ruchel and Tony St. Hilaire, who opened Bucky’s Pub in July 2019. The Boldwins kept the previous name when they began running the pub last December. Shortly after the calendar flipped to January 2023 they rechristened the business as the Dumb Luck Pub & Grill.
They renamed the eatery while expanding the food menu. The Dumb Luck Pub & Grill offers a long list of appetizers, including nachos, quesadillas, mozzarella sticks, poutine and chicken wings. The menu features a variety of salads plus chili and a soup of the day. More-substantial choices include a Reuben sandwich, a cheesesteak sandwich, a meatball sub and a half-dozen burger options, including the Dumb Luck Pub burger that comes with applewood-smoked bacon and maple-bourbon caramelized onions.
The Dumb Luck Pub & Grill has a busy bar, but according to Ed Boldwin the business will be more about food than drink. Bucky’s Pub started that restaurant-first move from its predecessor, Travia’s Tavern, and the Boldwins plan to take that up another few notches.
“I don’t want to be a bar,” Ed Boldwin said. “I want this to be a restaurant with a bar.”
What’s the story behind it?
Patricia Boldwin, who relocated to the United States from Brazil three years ago, has experience making jewelry and running a beauty business. The bulk of Ed Boldwin’s professional experience is in the car-sales business in Vermont and New Hampshire.
The Winooski native worked in the restaurant industry for Ground Round for about a decade in the early 1990s in Boston and New Hampshire. Even while working in the auto industry he kept his hand in the food-and-drink industry with occasional bartending gigs. All these years later, Boldwin decided to pull away from the car-sales world.
“I was ready to get out. It’s a tough industry, mentally, everything,” he said. But he loves customer service – “I don’t believe anybody takes it seriously anymore,” Boldwin said – so he wanted to bring that emphasis to the Dumb Luck Pub & Grill. He knows the restaurant business can be at least as stressful as the car-selling business, but he said he believes good customer service in his restaurant will reduce the stress level.
The Dumb Luck Pub & Grill, situated off Shelburne Falls Road at the end of tiny, dead-end Ballards Corner Road, seats 40 customers inside and a similar number on the outside deck. Boldwin is hoping to draw families to fill those seats with a menu that delivers pub-food staples with quality.
“We’re just kind of old-school,” he said. “These days everybody tries to reinvent everything. I just like the old stuff.”
Hours and location
Dumb Luck Pub & Grill, 104 Ballards Corner Road, Hinesburg. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. (802) 799-2296, www.dumbluckpub.com
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Dumb Luck Pub & Grill goes restaurant-first, bar-second in Hinesburg
