By Dana Roberts • The Current Contributing Writer
This May, celebrate the beginning of warm weather, longer days, and lazy evenings with a trip to The RiverWalck Saloon, Parryville’s sprawling roadhouse restaurant.
Located at 101 Centre Street, RiverWalck is hard to miss. A large, multilevel building, resembling a reimagined cabin, RiverWalck sits on a beautifully landscaped lot, with an elevated old-fashioned car and large billboard drawing in the eye of passerby. And one must allow themselves to be drawn in, for all that RiverWalck has to offer: delicious food, a unique, comfortable vibe, fantastic outdoor spaces (including multiple decks, a covered open-air stone patio dining area, a large firepit with tons of seating), and a constant line-up of excellent entertainment.
Roger Ortiz, the manager of RiverWalck, noted that while RiverWalck is often thought of as a “biker bar”, it’s really so much more. Ortiz said that RiverWalck has pushed more towards a family atmosphere, where anyone can come out and have fun.
Fun is certainly easy to pursue at RiverWalck. The establishment offers a varied and exciting monthly line-up of things to do, including live music, trivia nights, Friday night dance parties, theme nights, and twice-monthly line dancing, which RiverWalck has become renowned for. Line-dancing has been going strong there for about three years. No experience is required, as a trainer comes in to give lessons prior to the start of each evening’s dancing session. May also marks the return of line dancing moving out onto the back deck for the warm weather season, where participants and observers alike can enjoy the atmosphere.
Music lovers will also find RiverWalck to be a haven, because working with local acts and bands is a priority here. Two Taboo, a classic rock duo, is a regular favorite and hosts an open-mic night. The Friday night dance party, hosted by deejay Chris Trio, features a good mix of everything, with larger doses of throwback hip hop, Latin/reggaeton, and EDM (electronic dance music).
Trio loves deejaying at RiverWalck and finds it to be the perfect fit. Since his previous weekend gig at Ruby’s Saloon came to a close last year, when Ruby’s abruptly shuttered its doors, Trio has loved calling RiverWalck his weekend deejay home. He says that his favorite part of deejaying there is the overall vibe.
“The place brings such an eclectic mix of people,” Trio says. “No other bar has treated me the way the staff at RiverWalck does. The staff is so nice and welcoming. Roger is one of the best bar managers I have ever worked for. The food is just a bonus; they take VERY good care of me there as a nightlife deejay and as a person overall.”
The excellent hospitality Trio mentions is no surprise, as it’s a priority for Ortiz as RiverWalck’s manager. Creating a fun, inviting space for all is his goal. Ortiz has been the general manager at RiverWalck for two years, after initially joining the staff as a bartender in 2018. His previous 25 years’ experience as a retail store manager shines through with the care he takes in running a bustling and fun operation.
In conversation with Ortiz, the pride he and the staff feel for RiverWalck is evident. They have created a menu in which everyone can find something appealing. While RiverWalck originally started as a Tex-Mex restaurant, it is now geared more towards barbeque. The adjustments to the menu have been well-received, as the food and drinks are applauded by guests. Ortiz, when asked about his favorite menu item, says the ribs are “fall-off-the-bone” delicious, and also highly recommends the Key Lime margarita and all of the summer drinks.
Ortiz’s pride in RiverWalck, and the collective love its staff and patrons feel for it, stems from the owner of RiverWalck, Michael Johnson. Johnson, who will celebrate his 70th birthday May 9th (another reason to head to RiverWalck in May!), has worked in the restaurant and bar business for years.
A native of New Hampshire, he spent his adult life between Park City, Utah, and Carmel, California, working in and then owning various bars and restaurants, and could easily write a book about his adventures. He worked for Clint Eastwood from 1986 until the mid-late 1990’s. A previous coworker of Johnson’s introduced him to the manager of Eastwood’s restaurant in Carmel, the Hog’s Breath Inn.
Johnson started working there in ’86, when Eastwood was the mayor of Carmel, and then went on to work at another of Eastwood’s restaurants, Mission Ranch. The restaurant world eventually led Johnson back to Park City, where he then owned several restaurants and bars. One of those was the well-known (and ironically named) “No Name Saloon” in Park City, which RiverWalck is loosely modeled after.
Johnson hired Mark Stemmler to run the No Name Saloon, which Stemmler did an excellent job of. (Johnson says of Mark: “He is a legend in Park City.”) But all good things come to an end, and Johnson eventually sold off his businesses in Park City, including the saloon. Johnson and Stemmler both made their way back east; Johnson, to help take care of his brother, and Stemmler, back to his homeland of Carbon County, PA.
The pull of the friends eventually succeeded in reuniting them again. Stemmler called Johnson and asked him to come take a look at a property he had just bought; a restaurant he had grown up going to: Walck’s Family Restaurant. Johnson did so, and immediately was in. He became the owner, leasing the restaurant from Stemmler, and RiverWalck’s was thus born, in 2008.
It has since been a labor of love, which Johnson continues to strive to upgrade. He notes that the magnitude of the building means that there’s still more to do; one whole upstairs area is still unfinished. This just speaks to the possibilities RiverWalck still has to offer, and to the crowds it will inevitably continue to draw in.
For more information visit https://www.riverwalcksaloon.com
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