Ashby buys Stanley’s Tavern, recalls family history

July 25, 2024 20

Stanley’s Tavern in Wilmington is under new ownership t- Ashby Hospitality Group. l PHOTO COURTESY OF ASHBY HOSPITALITY GROUP

WILMINGTON — Stanley’s Tavern in Wilmington is under new, but familiar, ownership after Ashby Hospitality Group announced acquiring the community-based sports bar.

Prior to its most recent purchase, the hospitality group owned six restaurants and employed over 200 employees. Marc Ashby told the Delaware Business Times that acquiring Stanley’s Tavern and adding it as the company’s seventh restaurant made sense for him and his business partner Jeremy Hughes.

“I think it was just sort of the perfect opportunity. Steve Torpey has had it for over 40 years under his operation and he’s just ready to retire and enjoy that. When we were offered to take a look at it and walked through it, we kind of fell in love with it,” Ashby said.

That walk-through reminded Ashby of his own past. His parents, Robert and Sandy Ashby, spent many years refining the restaurant business for the family with local colleagues such as Torbey himself.

“Forty-some years ago, my dad and Steve Torpey worked together at H.A. Winstons, managing and opening that restaurant for that company and right around that same time, Steve Torbey went and took ownership of Stanley’s which has been in operation for 90 years and my dad opened the first McGlynn’s,” Ashby told DBT.

H.A. Winstons operated a chain of restaurants in the Philadelphia area through the 1980s, offering gourmet burgers and its famous onion soup, similar to offerings found at McGlynn’s and Stanley’s today.

“I’ve known Steve Torpey for a long time. I run into him a couple of times a year now. But the moment we walked into the restaurant, I remembered everything. It’s very familiar and I can tell that it’s run with the same training my dad had because that’s how I had been trained at McGlynn’s,” Ashby said.

As a sports bar and community staple with the storied family history and similar price points and food items, Stanley’s Tavern falls in line with the other restaurants currently in Ashby Hospitality Group’s portfolio. The group owns Deer Park Tavern in Newark, Cantwell’s Tavern in Odessa and four McGlynn’s Pub locations throughout the state, including spots in Dover, Glasgow, Pike Creek and Greenville.

So far, he said the transition has been positive for both companies. He hopes to make minor improvements, but not many, to Stanley’s Tavern’s already booming business.

“If anything, hopefully, we will be able to make the outside dining permanent,” Ashby told DBT. “The comments are mostly all positive. If anyone is afraid we’re going to come in and flip it upside down on its head, that’s not it at all. We’re keeping the staff the same while bringing in some of our team to understand how the current staff works. This is a good business already. We don’t need to make a lot of changes to it. We’re just happy to play a part.”