HANOVER — Last year, Tony Barnett, of Blue Sky Restaurant Group, sold Molly’s Restaurant and Bar in Hanover to devote more time to his family.
Now Barnett is parting ways with two more Hanover restaurants under the Blue Sky umbrella: Jesse’s Steak, Seafood and Tavern off Route 120 and Dunk’s Sports Grill in downtown.
Barnett, 47, of Plainfield, recently became a grandfather of two, and letting go of the restaurants will free up more time in his schedule to visit them, he said.
“It was just a good time because there was the right person to sell (Jesse’s) to,” Barnett said in a recent interview.
Indeed, in a similar move to when Barnett sold Molly’s to longtime manager Jennifer Packard, Jesse’s general manager Patrick Reed is taking the reins.
“He really knew the business,” Barnett said.
Reed, 49, of Norwich, began his career at Jesse’s 20 years ago as a salad prep cook. Since then he’s moved up the ranks, first assembling dishes on the line before becoming kitchen manager, front of house manager, and eventually general manager of a team of 70, a position he’s held for the past 15 years.
Jesse’s marks Reed’s first time owning and operating a restaurant.
“I take a lot of pride in continuing the founders’ legacy,” Reed said of the restaurant, which Patty and Marc Milowsky first opened in 1976, about two decades before they founded Blue Sky Restaurant Group.
With that legacy in mind, Reed plans to keep the restaurant “as the same as possible,” from the rustic decor to the menu of hearty American cuisine such as rib eye steaks, Maine lobster, crab bisque and grilled meatloaf.
Both Barnett and Reed declined to provide the sale price for the business.
While Jesse’s will continue to operate with business as usual, Dunk’s, which has been closed for several weeks, is set to become a different restaurant under new ownership. The sale is still pending, and Barnett declined to provide the name of the new owner, though he said the restaurant is slated to open sometime next year.
Tucked into Lebanon Street, across from Talbots, Dunk’s was formerly occupied by Salt hill Pub until it shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic.
Blue Sky gift cards bearing the logo for Jesse’s may still be used there under the new ownership, Barnett said.
Gift cards to Dunk’s, meanwhile, will not be redeemable as the restaurant will reopen as a new business.
Over the decades, Blue Sky has comprised Upper Valley institutions such as Molly’s, Italian restaurant Lui Lui in West Lebanon, as well as Jesse’s, and Dunk’s, and Snax in West Lebanon.
In 2012, the Milowskys’ business partner Eric Roberts became the sole owner of Lui Lui in West Lebanon and Nashua, N.H.
Six years later, the couple, who still manage the properties for Molly’s and Jesse’s, sold Blue Sky to Barnett and his wife, Erin Barnett.
Even though the sale of Jesse’s and Dunk’s means the Blue Sky Group has downsized once again, “I actually feel really good about it because the people who have bought the restaurants are basically all in the Blue Sky family,” said Marc Milowsky, who lives in Hartland.
For now, Barnett plans to hold onto Snax, a casual dining spot on the far end of the Centerra Parkway in Lebanon that opened in 2020 and the sole remaining restaurant in the Blue Sky empire.
“I need something to do,” he said.