One of the first things visitors will see when they walk into Crazy Horse Beer and Burgers is a refurbished 1890s-style back and front bar with intricate wood carvings.

The owners of the new restaurant and bar, scheduled to open Thursday in the Drake neighborhood, discovered the bars, which had been made in Tama and moved to Toledo.

“It’s a really comfortable space, a kind of space where you can hang out for quite a little bit,” said Jeff Bruning, president of Full Court Press, the restaurant group behind Crazy Horse Beer and Burgers.

The restaurant at 2331 University Ave. was originally slated to open in mid- to late spring but the outbreak of the novel coronavirus changed those plans.

The restaurant doesn’t have space for outdoor seating, so Bruning and his team reworked a business plan based on reduced seating capacity due to social distancing requirements. Prospective patrons may be hesitant about venturing into an establishment for a sit-down meal, another hurdle for the restaurant group.

“We’ve never opened up and we’ve never had a business in Dogtown specifically, so we have no idea how this will work,” Bruning said in a recent interview with the Business Record.

The name of the new establishment pays tribute to previous tenants of the building: Crazyhorse Guitars from 1996 to 2017, and prior to 1996, Music Circuit and Found Guitars.

Before that, the building, constructed in the 1880s, housed a pharmacy, copy store and surgeon’s office.

The building has been renovated over the past year, including the addition of windows to the University Avenue side of the structure.

The restaurant will feature 24 beers on tap as well as canned beers, cocktails and frozen cocktails. To-go cocktails will also be available in various sizes.

Hours for the establishment will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 11 a.m to midnight Fridays; 10 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

The staff at Crazy Horse will be required to wear masks for the foreseeable future; tables will be positioned in accordance with social distancing guidelines. 

Full Court Press owns and operates 12 other Des Moines-area establishments, including Fong’s Pizza and Iowa Tap Room.

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