Shauna Steigerwald

ssteigerwald@enquirer.com

Nick and Drew Lachey are putting their name on the neighborhood where they "basically grew up."

The brothers, who attended the School for Creative & Performing Arts in Over-the-Rhine before finding fame as members of late-'90s boy band 98 Degrees, opened Lachey's Bar at 56 E. 12th St. Thursday. The place was full for lunch within the hour of the doors unlocking at 11 a.m.

A&E Network has been filming work on the project; the 10-episode "Lachey's Bar" reality series is set to premiere in spring 2015. The network's cameras rolled during a Friday afternoon ribbon cutting for the building, known as 1201 Walnut and also home to 3CDC's corporate offices.

"This is a project that Drew and I have talked about for what seems like a decade," Nick told a crowd of media and other invited guests. "We wanted to be a part of the fantastic renaissance that is happening here."

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, who gave the Lacheys keys to the city and proclaimed Friday "Nick and Drew Lachey Day," praised the project for putting a historic building back into productive use. The former Pabst Bedding Warehouse Building, once a small factory, dates to 1929.

Its new use will be "a sports bar that can appeal across the board" with craft cocktails and "killer" food, as Nick puts it. Hospitality group 4EG (Four Entertainment Group) partnered with the Lachey brothers on the project. 4EG owns Mt. Adams Pavilion, The Stand, The Sandbar, three Keystone Bar & Grill locations, The Righteous Room, Tap & Go, The Lackman, Igby's and The St. Clair.

Philadelphia-based celebrity chef Brian Duffy, who consulted on a new menu for Mount Adams Pavilion last spring, also consulted on the menu for Lachey's Bar. Duffy has appeared on shows including Food Network's "Date Plate," The Today Show and Spike TV's "Bar Rescue." He travels the country and internationally to evaluate restaurants, revamp menus and train staff members.

Bob Deck, co-founder of 4EG, said Lachey's Bar will serve sports bar food such as chicken wings, bison burgers and entree salads but will use locally sourced and fresh ingredients whenever possible. Executive chef James Karlson will run the kitchen. Items will be priced from $7-$12.

On tap, there will be 14 craft beers, some of them local; six wines; and two craft cocktails: a rye Manhattan and a vodka cosmopolitan. The drink menu also includes bottled and canned beers, additional wines and craft cocktails, and a Boilermaker menu of beer and one-ounce shot pairings.

"We've put together this sports bar, but we're also doing this elevated food and beverage program that fits in with what's going on down here (in Over-the-Rhine)," Deck said.

It's a true sports bar, with 20 TVs and a ticker tape with all the latest scores that will run 24/7, so passersby can read it even when the bar is closed. The space has 100 seats and 150-person occupancy.

One feature not found elsewhere in the city is a Pedal Wagon bay, where the pedal-powered wagon that offers pub crawls through the neighborhood, can pull into the bar. Waitresses will meet it for service. That was Nick's idea – born out of his own jaunts on the Pedal Wagon.

Personal experience was what made him want to open the bar in the first place.

"I'd be down here hanging out and I'd want to see the Reds game," he said. "There was no place down here for (that)."

Nick said he and Drew felt it was important to be personally involved in the process of getting the new bar up and running.

"You put your name on something, it represents you," he said. "We didn't want to be passive partners."

And though they won't be running the day to day operations of the bar, they'll be involved with marketing and promoting it, and they might even broadcast a radio show from the bar, Lachey said.

"We're going to be here as much as we can," he said. He and his wife, Vanessa, currently spend time in Los Angeles and New York and also have a home here. Their second child, a girl, is due in early January. Drew returned to Cincinnati years ago.

He also hopes the whole experience of two guys without relevant experience opening a bar will make for good TV – and be good for the city.

"It's a great opportunity for us to show what our city is all about," he said.

513-275-0740; lacheys.com