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Harrison's Do Drop Inn sold, reopening as Bird Dogs Sports Bar & Grill

Brian C. Rittmeyer
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Brian C. Rittmeyer | Tribune-Review
Ashlie Daniels, 34, will be the manager of the new Bird Dogs Sports Bar & Grill that she and her family will operate at the former Do Drop Inn in on Freeport Road in Harrison. They closed on buying the property on Monday, May 7, 2018.
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Brian C. Rittmeyer | Tribune-Review
The former Do Drop Inn on Freeport Road in Harrison on Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Ashlie Daniels and her family have bought the restaurant and tavern, which closed in July 2017.

Ashlie Daniels is hoping everyone will do drop in.

But it won't be to the Do Drop Inn Harrison residents have known for decades. It's going to be called Bird Dogs Sports Bar & Grill.

"We want it to be a fun, family atmosphere," Daniels said Wednesday. "We want to clean it up and return it back to what it was years ago."

Daniels and her family closed on buying the former Do Drop Inn on Monday. That includes her father, Bruce Daniels, and three sisters — Jamie Tinnemeyer Mace, Courtney Daniels and Morgan Ferczak.

"We're all going to be involved," she said.

Daniels, 34, who lives in Harrison, will be the manager. She's been in the bar business since she was 17. For 10 years, she worked for Jim and Donna Finley, first at Big Dogs in Plum and later in Myrtle Beach, where she managed their place, Harry the Hats .

Meghan Sladick, 32, moved from the Pittsburgh area to Myrtle Beach, but didn't know Daniels until she hired her as a bartender at Harry the Hats.

"She was bubbly. She had a great personality," Sladick said. "She always had a smile on her face. Everybody loved her. She was one of my really, really good friends."

She thinks Daniels will do great running Bird Dogs.

"She's got that mentality where she's always setting goals and reaching them," she said. "She's a hard worker. She doesn't give up. She always strives for the best. I think she'll do very, very well."

Daniels returned to the area in September 2012 after her step-mother fell ill. She's been working as a real estate agent the last couple of years.

"I'm a worker," she said. "I've always had two or three jobs."

But she wanted to get back into the bar business, which she loves because of "the people, the atmosphere and being a part of the community and serving them. It's great being part of something."

The Do Drop Inn, at 2615 Freeport Road, had closed in July after having been run for generations by the Singer family. It had been listed for sale earlier that year, initially at $650,000.

Daniels and her family paid $300,000, which includes the property, liquor license and everything inside the building.

They hope to open in mid-to-late summer, after renovating and freshening up the place.

The work will include new ceilings and flooring and the addition of an outside patio. More seating will be placed in the front, where there were two pool tables. Another room will be used as a game room, while the dining room will be used for banquets and parties.

The full kitchen will serve bar food and have a seasonal menu, still a work in progress.

There will be multiple televisions for watching sports games — Steelers, Pirates, Penguins. "I'm a Pittsburgh girl through and through," she said.

"We're looking forward to transforming it," Daniels said.

It will be nonsmoking.

Between 15 and 20 people will work there, and it will be open seven days a week, Daniels said.

Daniels said her family wants Bird Dogs to be a place where people can come to hang out and have "awesome food and great service."

"We look forward to serving the community and being a destination place," she said.

Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@tribweb.com or on Twitter @BCRittmeyer.