After almost a decade as owners of Blackback Pub in Waterbury, married couple Lynn Mason and Dave Juenker have sold the bar and restaurant to its general manager, Ehren Hill, and chef, Cory Swafford. They declined to share the sale price.
Mason and Juenker will continue to own the building at 1 Stowe Street, which they purchased two years ago. After that acquisition, the couple expanded the business from its original basement home into the upstairs, roughly doubling seats to about 100.
Hill, 40, who has managed Blackback for the past two and a half years, previously worked as bar manager at Three Penny Taproom and Positive Pie, both in Montpelier. Swafford, 49, was executive chef at Pro Pig in Waterbury and chef at Lost Nation Brewing in Morrisville before joining the Blackback team about 14 months ago.
“These guys have been knocking it out of the park for us for the last year,” Juenker said. He and his wife were ready to step back, he added.
The new co-owners have no plans to change anything about Blackback, which draws locals and tourists with its strong beer list and menu of small plates. “The legacy should be preserved,” Hill said.
Swafford described his menu as “a twist on pub food with an Asian flair.” The chef, who eats vegan at home, noted that about a third of the menu is vegan, although “there are plenty of meat options, too.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Waterbury’s Blackback Pub Sold to General Manager-Chef Team”
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This article appears in The Tech Issue 2023.
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