“I learned quickly there’s no such thing as a perfect job -- there are still headaches and issues no matter how much you enjoy it,” he says. “It’s not all Studio 54 all the time.”
Owning a bar is like hosting a keg party every night of the week at your own house, he says. Constant and predictable problems arise: unclogging toilets, throwing the excessively drunk out of the place, people stealing the glasses, and the strangest phenomenon to date, people stealing urinal screens from the bathroom.
“If someone tries to talk to me on a Thursday night at 12:30, I hope no one ever thinks I’ve been rude to them,” Beder says. “You’re not going to excel if you’re there drinking and not paying attention. That’s the only way it’s going to survive.”
Now that he has two Kent State graduates as full-time managers, Brett Sinning and Mike Pfahl, who graduated from the University of Akron School of Law in May, Beder is open to expand his business.
"I can excel even more, once I have less of a presence operational-wise,” he says. “I can set up promotions more and work on big things.”
But even today Beder doesn’t have a grand plan. When asked the classic “where do you want to be in 10 years?” query, he doesn’t know. Opportunities come and go, and he hopes to make the right decisions.
Nine years ago he didn’t apply to any other colleges and came to Kent State as soon as he was accepted. Four years ago, he decided he wanted to own a bar, even though he didn’t know much more than what he learned as a bartender at the Robin Hood. Last spring, he bought a condominium in Brimfield -- the first place he looked at.
“Sometimes I think I don’t put as much thought as I should into things,” he says. “Sometimes you just know. I’m not really picky.”