Funk ‘n Dive owners set to open Harp and Hound gastropub in downtown Ogden
Funk ’n Dive co-owners Bridget Gordon and Dave Morris are shown here Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, inside the location for their soon-to-open gastropub Harp and Hound in Ogden. The business is located above Funk ’n Dive on Washington Boulevard.
Funk ’n Dive co-owners Bridget Gordon and Dave Morris are shown here Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, inside the location for their soon-to-open gastropub Harp and Hound in Ogden. The business is located above Funk ’n Dive on Washington Boulevard.
Funk ’n Dive co-owners Bridget Gordon and Dave Morris are shown here Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, inside the location for their soon-to-open gastropub Harp and Hound in Ogden. The business is located above Funk ’n Dive on Washington Boulevard.
OGDEN — You’ve met Funk ‘n Dive. Now meet Harp and Hound.
A new bar opens in Ogden next week, with the goal of offering food and drink in a more sophisticated atmosphere than your typical pub.
Dave Morris and Bridget Gordon are co-owners of Funk ‘n Dive, a basement bar that opened two years ago in what had long been The Wine Cellar at 2550 Washington Blvd. Now, Morris and Gordon are opening Harp and Hound, just upstairs from Funk ‘n Dive.
The new bar will occupy the street-level space that was vacated by Sea Bears Ogden Fish House when it moved to Ogden’s Union Station last summer.
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Morris calls Harp and Hound a “gastropub,” the fancy term for a bar that specializes in serving high-quality food.
Now 46, Morris opened his first bar in Texas at the age of 23. He’s owned and operated a number of bars over the last couple of decades, including Piper Down in Salt Lake City. He says Harp and Hound will be a standout among pubs.
“This is by far the most beautiful bar I’ve ever built, the most thoughtful bar I’ve ever built,” he said. “More science has gone into it than any of the others.”
Make no mistake: Harp and Hound is a bar, and patrons must be at least 21 years of age. But food will be every bit as important as drink. The new bar has a full-size kitchen, which is a change from Funk ‘n Dive and other bars Morris has been associated with.
SARAH WELLIVER/ Standard-Examiner
Brett Jensen works on welding liquor shelves Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at the future location for gastropub Harp and Hound in Ogden. Co-owners Dave Morris and Bridget Gordon hope to open the new business, located above their bar Funk ‘n Dive, in the next week.
“Food is going to be huge here,” said Morris, who is in the process of hiring cooks for the new facility. “It is by far the largest kitchen I’ve ever put together. All my kitchens in all my other bars have been afterthoughts.”
In addition to the traditional bar food — like burgers and sandwiches — Morris says they’ll offer menu items that you might not expect at a pub — like a build-your-own pizza bar.
“You tell the ‘pizza bartender’ what you want on your pie, and they throw it in the oven,” he said.
An extensive vegan menu will also be available. Morris says vegan options have been very popular at Funk ‘n Dive.
“There is a huge — a lot larger than I ever imagined — vegan community here in Ogden,” he said.
The bar will be at the heart of the new pub, situated in the center of the room. It’s an oval-shaped counter, with bartenders in the center and patrons seated around the outside.
“This is 90 linear feet of bar,” Morris said. “It’s a bartender’s bar. It’s going to be a big party spot.”
SARAH WELLIVER/Standard-Examiner
Funk ‘n Dive co-owner Dave Morris stands in the previously closed off stairwell between the downstairs Ogden bar and the business space above Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, on Washington Boulevard. After Sea Bears moved locations, Morris and business partner Bridget Gordon bought the space and are turning it into a gastropub.
Morris says at virtually every other pub in town, the bar is up against one wall. You sit at the bar and stare at the wall, or stare at the bottles of alcohol, or stare at a TV screen.
“With this bar, you’re looking at people on the other side of the bar,” he said. “And they’re close enough across the bar that you could have a conversation.”
Why the name Harp and Hound? Morris says they “went ’round and ’round and ’round” on the name.
“‘Two Angry Gingers’ was right up there on the list of names,” Morris said with a laugh. “My wife and Bridget are both gingers.”
But Morris said, in the end, they wanted a somewhat classier name to match the sophistication of the new bar.
“We got to building it, and the space just started blossoming into this gorgeous, gorgeous vision,” he said. “And we thought, ‘We can’t call it the Funk ‘n Dive.’ “
Morris is excited that the new gastropub will soon be joined by a couple of other eating establishments in that block of Washington Boulevard.
A new iteration of MacCool’s Public House — which lost its lease at the Ben Lomond Suites Hotel last July — is poised to open in the former Heebeegeebeez storefront just a couple of doors south of Harp and Hound. What’s more, Morris said a couple from Mongolia is planning to open a ramen noodle house in the former Popcorn Express space.
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Ogden Community and Economic Development director Tom Christopulos confirmed the MacCool’s plan, although he didn’t have a timeline on when the new restaurant would open. As for the ramen house, Christopulos said he wasn’t aware of any plans for that.
“It’s possible, but it’s just not something we’ve heard about,” he said.
Harp and Hound will open for lunch at 11 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. weekends. Last call is 1 a.m.
SARAH WELLIVER/Standard-Examiner
A temporary banner hangs above the future location of the Harp and Hound, left, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at 2550 Washington Blvd., in Ogden. The owners of Funk ‘n Dive hope to open the gastropub above their current bar by mid-January.
Morris says the new bar will have a soft opening — so soft, that he’s not even sure what day they’ll begin. But it should be sometime in the next week.
“We have tons and tons of kinks to work out,” he said. “But we’re so excited for the opening.”
Morris encourages folks to watch Facebook for the opening date of the new bar — he says they don’t have a Harp and Hound page, but they will use the Funk ‘n Dive page.
“We should probably change the name of our Facebook page to include the new bar,” he said. “Maybe call it something like ‘Funk and Hound?'”
Contact Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, or msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SEMarkSaal.