‘I’m getting chills talking about it’: After 26 years, this landmark Boise bar is for sale

Tom Moroney chuckles as he recalls becoming owner of the Dutch Goose at 27 years old.

Moroney and his soon-to-be business partner, Jay Lynch, were customers. Back then, the nondescript Boise bar at 3515 W. State St. was called the Big Pine Lounge.

It was a Friday night. The place was dead. Before finishing their drinks, the cousins hatched a plan.

Moroney scribbled a note on a beer coaster: “If you’re looking to sell, call this number.”

Telling the story now, he laughs out loud.

“Like 10 days later, I got a call!”

In April 1994, the Dutch Goose took flight. A longtime landmark on State Street, the beer bar and restaurant evolved into a thriving destination for hungry families and thirsty college students.

But times change. More than a quarter century after scrawling that fateful note, Moroney is now hoping for his own perfect beer-coaster scenario.

The Dutch Goose is for sale. Moroney wants out. For his own sanity, needs out.

This admission does not come easily. You hear it in his voice.

“I’m getting the chills right now talking to you about it,” he says, taking a break from toiling in the Goose’s kitchen. “I’ll miss it a lot, if it happens. For sure.”

Moroney and his family live in Star, where he owns a second bar, Sully’s Pub & Grill. Driving to Boise and running the Goose is running him ragged. It’s become difficult to hire good help in the Treasure Valley, he explains.

“The bottom line is I’m working too much, man,” Moroney says. “I’m working 6 1/2 days a week between the two of them. There’s just not a lot of labor in the Valley right now.”

For $210,000, a buyer gets a turnkey Dutch Goose business with all the equipment, fixtures and furniture. Moroney spent about $100,000 remodeling the building in early 2019. (Gentlemen, our iconic men’s restroom trough is gone. It has been honorably retired to a patron’s shop, Moroney says.) Rent is listed at $5,900 per month.

A new Dutch Goose owner could keep the beloved bar running smoothly.

Or, quite possibly, cook the Goose.

New owners are allowed to bring their own concepts, after all.

“Correct,” Moroney acknowledges.

He purchased the land and building four years ago. He’s listed the entire one-acre package at an eyebrow-raising $1.499 million. That’s roughly double what the place appraised for a year ago, Moroney adds. “I’m not looking to sell the property. That’s why I priced it that high.”

Buying the Dutch Goose would involve more than owning a bar and grill. It would feel like purchasing a chunk of Boise history.

Hand-cut finger steaks and steamed clams are synonymous with the Goose. Foosball and dart tournaments are part of its past lore. When local music thrived in the ’90s and early ’00s, the Goose became a hot spot for popular, now-defunct Boise bands The Tourists, Da Groove and Fat John & the Three Slims.

After taking over, Moroney and Lynch built a massive backyard patio area with horseshoe pits. To this day, high-school reunions organize festive gatherings back there. “Boise High and BK and Capital, they all do their meet-and-greets here,” Moroney says. “They’re really fun.”

Two-for-one burger Tuesdays, 50-cent beer Thursdays — all part of Dutch Goose magic, present and past.

The Goose also is part of Moroney’s family history. He and Lynch modeled the bar after the original Dutch Goose, a Stanford hangout owned by Moroney’s father in Menlo Park, California. They cut their service-industry teeth working there as teenagers, Moroney says. Initially, his dad partnered with them on the Boise location. Today, Lynch owns a second Dutch Goose in Caldwell, but he has no stake in the Boise business.

After being on the market for a month or so, there’s been plenty of buyer interest, Moroney says. “It’s going to take the right person to come in here,” he adds.

If that person materializes, they will need to approach the Dutch Goose with eyes wide open, he says.

And sleeves rolled up.

“You need to be ready to work,” Moroney says, before returning to a 12-hour New Year’s Eve shift. “It’s gonna take a lot.”

This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 4:31 PM.