We love when we hear stories about our retailers, and we're shocked we didn't hear about this one sooner! Coaches on Bethel Road in Columbus is a big KENO retailer, and that's why we know about the friendly neighborhood bar. And while KENO is well-known among the customers, it's not the only reason they show up there.
Jill Valentine is one of the many regulars at Coaches, which she calls a "Cheers" bar. Everyone knows your name and everyone treats you like family. So Jill decided to show her love for the bar in a big way, though the end product is figuratively quite small.
She built a 1/12 scale model of the entire bar. That means everything is sized to one inch for every one foot. From the patio outside to the Ohio Lottery machines inside, she left no detail out. It was a six month labor of love, full of shipments of tiny figures from places like China and England, hours of building and photo shrinking. The project took over Jill's home for a while, but the finished product is amazing.
" ," Jill said.
Talk about a conversation piece. Owner Benny Leonard says patrons spend a lot of time looking at it, comparing the model to the bar itself. Everything matches, from the lights and pictures on the walls to the miniaturized Ohio Lottery machinery. Anyone can look and see the match, but Jill says there are a lot of little hidden secrets in the model that only the regulars would get.
There's a Brown's hat and a Miller Light next to a glass in memory of Larry, one of the long time patrons who passed away. At the end of the bar sits a USA Today and several KENO tickets where another patron always sits. And in between is the spot where one of Coaches good customers and avid KENO player sits with his tickets laid out.
" " owner Benny Leonard said.
Jill works to keep the model up to date. Shortly after she completed it, Benny changed the menus so Jill got to work making the new ones. Most recently the new QuicKeno machines were added at the bar, and Jill got right to work using balsam wood to recreate them in miniature fashion.
Posted: 8/15/2018 11:10:54 AM