Grindhouse Cafe opening third coffee shop in former Bone Dry Bar in Highland

Grindhouse Cafe has been keeping Griffith wired for more than a decade and Whiting for the last four years.

Now the popular coffee shop, a destination and hangout spot known for its locally roasted coffees, creative beverages like Cactor prickly pear lemonade and sandwiches, is taking over the former Bone Dry Bar at 3805 Ridge Road in Highland. The long-running dive bar closed last year.

Grindhouse is in the process of auctioning off most of what’s in the bar, including the landmark sign.

“This has kind of been in the works since last fall and we’re super-stoked about it,” said Gabe Mauch, who owns Grindhouse along with his sister Kate. “It was a legendary place in the craft beer world. It was one of 3 Floyds’ first accounts if not the first. It was a Region staple known for its craft beers. But it was so weird. It was a dive bar to some people, a biker bar to others, a hippie bar, a bar for metal heads, whatever you wanted it to be. It was a nice kind of place that could be what you need. I went there a handful of times back when I worked at 3 Floyds. But I didn’t like smoky bars.”

They are now working to scrub the tar and smoke out of the walls, which will soon get a fresh coat of paint.

The new location in Highland is less than 2.5 miles north of the flagship Grindhouse on Broad Street in downtown Griffith, which has long been operating at capacity.

“We’re busting at the seams,” Mauch said. “When I last dropped in there were literally no tables open. It’s been a long time coming. We almost want to cannibalize our Griffith business because it’s a small room that’s often full.”

Grindhouse draws from all over Northwest Indiana and the Whiting location sees many customers from Chicago. It’s long fielded requests to open in other cities and towns.

“People who used to live up here ask us to open in Indianapolis,” Mauch said. “While that would be awesome, I don’t want to do the logistics of somewhere I can’t go to at least once a week. The charm of Grindhouse is as much the people who live there as the drinks we make. We’re like a mom and pop shop because we’re literally brother and sister.”

The new 3,000-square-foot location in Highland will be able to seat at least twice as many customers as the 25-28 the Griffith cafe seats. It will have a large back room that can be used for meetings.

“We’ll be able to be more of a resource for the community,” he said. “Whether you’re the chamber of commerce or selling essential oils, we’ve got a room.”

The Highland Grindhouse will host live music. It’s long had shows in Whiting but will be able to host larger and louder acts with a bigger space.

“We’ll be able to do bigger shows with higher capacity since we have tons more room,” he said.

It for instance will be able to host more punk rock shows.

“We’ll continue to do shows in Whiting but we’re cognizant that people live upstairs so we keep it more lowkey,” he said. “Punk is a passion of mine. It’s been in my bone marrow since I was a teenager. We’ll be able to do more shows and hopefully branch out a little.”

They’ve been doing extensive renovations, such as converting a bathroom to be handicapped accessible.

“Part of it is that we’ve been renting in Griffith for 12 years and Whiting for four years and we wanted to own a building,” he said. “It was in a lot better shape than we thought. We were pleasantly surprised. It has good bones. It’s been a bar and restaurant for 70 years.”

The Mauchs built out much of the original Grindhouse themselves but are hiring contractors to do a lot of the work this time.

“We were in our early 30s and broke. We did the floors ourselves. We built the bathroom half wall. We hung the drywall, and I’ll never do that again.”

They plan to make improvements like putting in new windows while keeping the dive bar aesthetic, as well as part of the bar, wood paneling and mirrored walls.

“It’s cool people will be able to walk into the same place as Bone Dry and it will look completely different,” he said.  “We’re going to strip down the paneling behind the bar to the bare wood. It will look much different. It won’t look the same as Griffith or Whiting with its exposed brick and real wood floors but it will feel like the same business.”

It will have similar decorations like action figures, collage art and punk rock posters.

The drink and food menus will be the same at all three locations to keep it consistent. 

“One thing we say is we don’t have a demographic,” he said. “We’re demographicless. We serve all demographics all over the Region. Everybody like a sandwich, a good pastry, coffee and good drinks.”

The larger kitchen will have however allow them to do more special events like brunch, paired dinners or tasting events with the Roaming Wedge mobile cheese shop.

“My sister and I both come from a culinary background and I’ve done some cheffing in my day,” he said.

The Highland coffee shop will employ about 15 people. Grindhouse plans to hire for all three locations soon.

“Grindhouse was a passion project my sister and I dreamed up,” he said. “I didn’t want to have a boss and didn’t dream it would get this big. It’s unreal the amount of support we’ve had. Grindhouse is 12 and will be a teenager next year. There have since been so many killer coffee shops and coffee roasters that opened in the Region. We’re almost like the old guard but we’re still innovating and doing bonkers stuff.”

He’s sought to elevate coffee culture in the Region.

“In 2012, one customer in particular said he was coming here because it was a local coffee shop but he didn’t realize how good the coffee was until he went back to the gas station,” he said. “Even my parents don’t want to drink the type of coffee we jokingly call brown water any more. The community has seen that taste matters over the past 12 years. Northwest Indiana has gotten killer roasteries, killer restaurants, breweries and distilleries. It’s a pretty cool place. It’s pretty cool that Grindhouse is considered cool in a place I consider pretty cool. Nationwide, coffee culture has been blowing up and we plant to continue to innovate and do something different than coffee shops like Starbucks and Dunkin. It’s been cool to see this blow up over the past 12 years.”

The goal is to be open by spring or early summer.

For more information, visit grindhouse.cafe or find the business on social media.