From Waiter To Restaurant Owner, The Journey Of Ray Herrington

St. Cloud Restaurant, Bar and Entertainment venue owner Ray Herrington got his start in west Duluth in Morgan Park.  This is the story of Ray Herrington.  He is the youngest of 6 children.  Ray's dad worked a lot of jobs including as a carpenter on the railroad in Duluth, he bartended at the Moose Lodge or Legion in the evening and worked at night as baker.  He recalled his dad being a busy guy and World War II veteran.  Ray's mother stayed home to raise the 6 kids.  Ray is the youngest by far... He is 15 years younger than his closest in age sibling.

Early Interests

Ray's interests as a young person included fishing at the nearby St. Louis river, playing football and soccer, running distances, and he played a lot of hockey.  Hockey is big in Duluth and that was the main sport Ray got involved with.  He also ran track throughout high school.  Ray played hockey at Duluth Denfeld through his sophomore year.

After High School

After graduation from high school at Duluth Denfeld, Ray wasn't sure what he wanted do to next.  He waited tables at the Radisson in Duluth for awhile before looking into becoming a F-4 and F-16 mechanic for airplanes in the military.  He spent the next year in training to learn to become an airplane mechanic.

College

Ray decided he wanted to go to college.  He applied at Minnesota-Duluth but the lines were took long for admission so he turned his attention to St. Cloud State University instead.  He started at SCSU in 1987 with a major in Political Science and Geography.  At this time he was also in the National Guard as an airplane mechanic.  He recalls it taking awhile to finish college with his dual commitment to the National Guard and college.  Herrington stayed with the National Guard for 13 years spending a good portion of his deployments in Central America.  He really enjoyed his time as an airplane mechanic.

Restaurant Jobs

When Ray wasn't working as a airplane mechanic, he was in St. Cloud working at restaurants.  He got a job working at Black Angus in Waite Park as a dishwasher as a 21-year old.  In his time at Black Angus he learned a couple of positions in the kitchen and worked as a server and bartender.  His time at Black Angus lasted 3 years before it shutdown and reopened as Angus McGee's.  Ray worked as a bartender and then part-time manager at Angus McGee's.  Ray also met his wife at Angus McGee's...she was a server there...they were married in 1994.  Ray also managed at JD Beamer's near SCSU for 2 years.

Big Break

Ray's big opportunity came when the ownership group that owned Angus McGee's bought the old Timber Lodge building on 2nd Street in St. Cloud.  Ray presented the plan to the ownership group with an upscale bar and grill with a simple menu and numerous taps.  He said the group liked it so much that they made him the 3rd owner and the operator of the new business called Boulder Tap House.  The concept worked so well that the ownership group now owns 12 Boulder Tap House franchises in the upper Midwest.

Addition of 7-West Taphouse

Grizzly's (formerly Angus McGee's) was the first restaurant group Herrington and the Letnes Group had owned and managed.  Boulder Tap became the 2nd.  The group was looking at other options and came across the idea of a smaller bar/restaurant with 50-60 seats that specialized in craft beer.  7-West opened in downtown St. Cloud in the former Electric Fetus location in 2016.

Pioneer Place

The group took over ownership of Pioneer Place on 5th in August of 2018.  They bought the building from Dan Barth.  Ray says running a theatre is hard to run and therefore they decided to introduce more music options than plays.  In the basement of Pioneer Place they discovered an unused room that later became Blue Goose Speakeasy.

Personal Life

Ray and his wife have 2 adult boys who were once hockey players at Tech High School.  His wife works as a teacher in Kimball.

If you'd like to listen to my 4-part conversation with Ray Herrington, click below.