COVINGTON, Ky. — Mandy and Jeremy Siney are exhausted, excited and well prepared after bringing something a little different to Covington on St. Patrick's Day.
“Somehow, we knew we would make this happen,” said Mandy Siney after she and her husband opened Mac’s Pizza Pub in MainStrasse Village. The pub, the fourth Mac’s in Greater Cincinnati, is located in the former Cosmo’s Grill Pub building at 604 Main St.
The new location serves the same menu items, from wings to burgers to pizzas, as the original Mac’s Pizza Pub opened by Mac Ryan in Clifton a decade ago. It also has 30 hot sauces available, a plethora of liquor (including Second Sight Spirits rum made in nearby Ludlow) and 26 beers on tap, including Braxton, MadTree and Rhinegeist.
The Sineys know Ryan’s original menu well. Mandy Siney worked under Ryan for six years in Clifton. Jeremy Siney was general manager there for two years before the couple approached Ryan about opening their own place under the Mac’s name. The Maineville and Mariemont locations are operator-owned as well.
“I think Mandy and Jeremy are very well suited to this environment and are excited to be part of MainStrasse’s renaissance,” said Ryan, who is helping the couple with ongoing remodeling of the two-story location and training kitchen staff.
The Sineys first scouted their MainStrasse Village location in December 2014. They then spoke with local business owners such as Molly Wellmann of Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar and Chef Paul Weckman and Emily Wolff of Frida 602 before buying the property in August 2015.
The other business owners said the neighborhood was on the “uptick” as a trendy food and entertainment destination. Mandy Siney now points to the future openings of Lisse Steakhouse inside the former Chez Nora location and Commonwealth Bistro at 621 Main St. as ongoing proof of that.
“What Mandy and Jeremy are doing is different than what’s happening across the street,” Ryan said when asked about the pub that bears his name. “We want to augment the community, not compete.”
For the Sineys, “augmenting” means more than simply offering Mac’s menu with the space's current two bars, outlets to charge smartphones throughout and 20 flat-screen televisions. Remodeling is underway to create a private event space and third bar for rent on the second floor of the building. They plan to open the bar in the next month.
The couple also plans to install an atrium consisting of a living wall of vegetation and a retractable sunroof in one of the first-floor bar areas by June. They are working with the contractors who designed a similar “living wall” concept at E & O Kitchen in Hyde Park.
“It is totally different than some of the other places around here,” Mandy Siney said.
