On any given weekend, people will arrive at The Slater Station in Slater, Iowa, by car, bicycle, or the preferred method of a golf cart, to enjoy the outdoor atmosphere, conversation amongst friends, and a cold one. This summer, the bar celebrated its one-year anniversary of selling drinks in a can and being a family-friendly place to unwind from the week.
Building a bar was not the original intention of the two couples from Huxley, Ardie and Cindy Drummond and Roger and Carol Ossian, who own the establishment.
“Originally, we were going to turn this space into a garage to hold a couple classic cars,” said Ardie, looking around the space that is now a bar. “We thought it would be fun to have a car club and maybe sell a few drinks. That was the original reason why we got our liquor license, but it quickly shifted once we started building it out.”
The Drummonds and Ossians are long-time friends, having first met each other when their daughters were playing sports together. The friendship evolved over the years to include woodworking that launched their first business venture together. Roger and Ardie create custom cabinets on the side through their 501 Woodshop label, which was the original reason why they purchased the building on Main Street.
As some point when Ardie and Roger were building out the garage, the idea shifted to creating a bar. Cindy and Ardie agreed to take on the day-to-day operations of the bar and spent time learning the point-of-sale system and ordering. “The scary part of starting all of this is wondering if anyone would buy beer from us,” said Cindy, reflecting on the opening weekend.
On June 30, 2022, with no announcement and little fanfare, the Drummonds put a small sign out front that indicated they were open. A golf cart passing by saw the sign, stopped, and asked “are you open?” By the end of the night, there were about 30 people who stopped in. “That was enough,” said Cindy.
Their first test was the upcoming Fourth of July holiday weekend. “We didn’t know if we purchased enough beer,” said Ardie, who then phoned in a favor from the former owner of the Nite Hawk Bar & Grille. They quickly learned they did not and pivoted to ordering more.
When visiting The Slater Station today, pay attention to the custom made tables by Ardie and Roger that are sourced from repurposed materials. The bar is made from beams from an old car dealership in Des Moines. The outdoor tables are old electrical spools, and the tin siding on the walls are from an old barn.
This past summer, they installed the roof covering for the outdoor seating and expanded the deck. The owners have plans to continue to expand. They recently purchased the lot adjacent to The Slater Station that they will use for a family-friendly green space, and Ardie has aspirations of finally building the garage on the property, with a “car club” to follow.
The Slater Station is located at 501 Main Street, Slater, Iowa 50244.
