Tim Harty, The Business Times

When you name your new Fruita bar Rides, it can pertain to so many things: Bicycles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, trikes, tractors, scooters, horses, bulls, and the list goes on.

Rides is a nod to all of them.

“Anything you can ride with two wheels or four wheels,” said Micheal Repp, who was then reminded to include four hooves, so he did.

Repp and fellow owner Riley Richter opened Rides Bar and Grill on March 14 at 152 S. Mesa St.

If the address seems familiar to Fruita residents, that’s because it has been a multitude of bars and restaurants over the years: Koko’s Tavern; FatJar Cannery & Brewhaus; The End Zone Sports Pub; and Blue Lotus Vietnamese Restaurant, to name a few.

But Repp said one previous bar/restaurant inspired what’s taking shape in Rides Bar and Grill, and that’s Charley’s Place.

Repp grew up in the Mack area and knows Fruita well, and he knows the building where Rides now resides started as a gas station in 1963. And in 1980 Charlie Greager opened Charley’s Place, which, according to Greager’s 2011 obituary, was the first establishment in Fruita to get a liquor license.

And Charley’s Place was around for the longest stretch of any business in that building, Repp said. Thus, he surmises anyone who has lived in Fruita for a while knows of it.

“We gutted the building, restored it to what Charlie had it as. … Pulled the bar back, did a bunch of renovation to bring it back to the open dance floor, the concept of just having more of a hangout, dancing, fun, vibrant atmosphere,” Repp said, adding the renovation of the approximately 5,400-square-foot building has been four months of 15-hour days every day.

The renovation includes the 2,000-square-foot patio in front of the building. The patio is usable now, but it won’t be a finished product until late April, maybe May.

Repp hopes he can keep Rides going long enough to rival Charley’s Place’s tenure at 152 S. Mesa St.

“The building has always been some establishment in Fruita for something,” he said. “We’re hoping that we’re able to establish the longest run, of course.”

While Rides welcomes all people, it will not try to be all things to all people. Rather, it will keep things simple. Look for the big-name brewers, such as Coors, to be on tap. Some craft beer from local brewers will be for sale in cans and bottles, but it won’t be on tap.

For the grill portion of the business, the menu is extremely simple: hamburgers, french fries and a couple appetizers. Of the five kinds of hamburgers, four will be one-third-pound burgers, and one will be a half-pound, and the beef is from grass-fed, free-range cattle from the Lazy 3X Ranch in Mack.

“We’re running with what works in Fruita, which is ranch food,” Repp said, adding he’s not trying to compete with any other restaurants.

Repp worked in Salt Lake City for a while, and he said, “I sat on the Midtown District Development Board in Salt Lake and brought home some knowledge about how to really integrate community activity into your business and how to respect the environment and the socioeconomic development area of how you engage.”

So what he and Richter ultimately want Rides Bar and Grill to be is a representation of Fruita’s core residents.

“Rides is paradigmed on locals supporting locals,” Repp said. “As someone who has grown up in this valley and appreciated the small-town feel my entire life, even when I moved away and owned businesses out of the state, it always was home to me.

“So, Rides, the sole purpose of this bar is to restore the small-town feel for the Fruita locals.”

That means relaxing and having fun, and Rides will try to provide some regular promotions.

“We’ll do a Sunday morning brunch/karaoke,” Repp said. “We’ll run Western night on Fridays and Top 40 on Saturdays.”