RAGBRAI 2012: Burned before ’08 RAGBRAI, bar gets a second chance

Fri, Jul 27, 2012 | by Josh Hafner

MT. VERNON, Ia. — Scorz Bar & Grill sold cans of beer for $3 at the bottom of hilly Main Street here Friday morning, next to a band playing Tom Petty covers. There’s $3 beer and cover bands in most every town on RAGBRAI’s route. For Scorz, though, it was all a long time coming.

The bar burned to a total loss five months before RAGBRAI 2008 came through here on its ride. Scorz owner Dan Spellerberg said he and two fellow owners planned to roll out the beer-soaked carpet for cyclists that year.

“We were really looking forward to it,” he said. “It stunk.”

The fire started from a brand-new furnace in the building’s basement, crawling up to the bar’s main floor and swallowing three apartments above. The bar wasn’t open yet that morning, and no one was injured. But flames did $500,000 in damage.

Scorz’s building, a late 1800s structure, previously was the only one on Main Street to have never caught fire.

The establishment re-opened a year later with all-new everything. The apartments above are now some of the nicest in town, Spellerberg said.

He found out his bar had a second chance at RAGBRAI in January. On Friday, Spellerberg stood at a stand in front of the bar, hawking cans of Fat Tire at three bucks each.

“Today is more about having fun than selling beer,” he said. “Still, they go hand in hand.”

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