photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

From left, Austin Ironwhiteman, John Moore and Zoe Wohlford are pictured on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Rose's Room at John Eddy's, 3115 W. Sixth St.

He’s been a Cessna executive, a commerce secretary, even a lieutenant governor.

But when it comes to running a neighborhood bar, John Moore admits that his granddaughter Zoe Wohlford could teach him a thing or two.

In the place on West Sixth Street that he recently helped Zoe and her fiance buy – a bar nestled in a strip mall, once called Kaspar’s, then Conroy’s, then Murf’s, then Dexter’s – there’s a room that’s called “Rose’s Room,” after Rosetta Flueck, the wife of the bar’s first owner, Kaspar Flueck.

“I suggested they change the name,” John says. “Zoe said, ‘We’re not going to do that. Because it means something to people who have been coming here for 20 or 30 years.’

“She’s smarter than I am,” he says. “And I’m glad.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A row of Busch lamps hangs over the booths at John Eddy’s, 3115 W. Sixth St., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

The bar at 3115 W. Sixth St. is now named after John – it’s called John Eddy’s – but John says that “from day 1, in my mind, it’s always been Zoe’s bar.” She started working here when it was called Murf’s, and she says it’s like home and its staff is like family to her.

“I just fell in love with it,” Zoe says. “I wanted to be here every day. It wasn’t working to me, it was fun. I was excited to come here and work. So, when that opportunity was presented, I’m here every day anyway, and I love it, so why would I not?”

The story of how she came to own it starts five years ago, when John was looking for a house to buy in Lawrence. “There was a gap between showings, and our Realtor suggested we come here and have a sandwich,” John says. “And, the minute I walked in, it felt good, because I’ve always liked neighborhood bars.”

He bought a house about 15 minutes away, and he said he’s been to the bar about 100 times since then, around once every two weeks.

He watched his granddaughter work there and become part of its community. And eventually, he mentioned to the owner that “I had always wanted to buy a bar. And he said to Zoe one day, ‘Time to talk to Grand-John.'”

“Yep!” Zoe says.

With John’s backing, Zoe and her fiance, Austin Ironwhiteman, became the owners of the bar in July, and on Saturday, John Eddy’s will have its grand reopening celebration, just in time for KU’s football game against K-State at 11 a.m. The bar opens at 10 a.m., the kitchen opens at 11, and there will be comedy at 10 p.m., too.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The Kaw Valley Kickball League trophy sits atop a shelf on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at John Eddy’s, 3115 W. Sixth St.

“Intuitively, I felt it was a good business,” John says. Before he became lieutenant governor under Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, he had 30 years of experience in the private sector, so he knew all the elements were there: “Popular bar, good business, and a granddaughter I’ve loved since she was born.”

So, not too much is changing at John Eddy’s, Zoe says: “That’s super important to us, because why would we want to change something that’s already good?”

But she is making some smaller improvements, like new tile in the bathrooms, new covers for the booths, “just kind of cleaning things up.” This is the type of place that’s open almost every day, she and John say, and there’s not always been time to take care of it.

John remembers a renovation project he took part in once: “The booth in which I’d always sit, if it’s available, was torn. My wife and I brought in duct tape.”

In the game room, there are dartboards now – “Who would think about that? I would not have,” John says – and a new darts league that meets on Thursday nights. And “they brought the pool table back,” he says, “because there are serious players in this town, and Austin is one of those.”

But Rose’s Room is still Rose’s Room, and it will still be a place for trivia, open mics, even meetings for some local organizations.

Zoe says she wanted to keep this place “kind of in the family,” so the people owning and running it would be ones who understood what it meant to the community. There had been other offers to buy it, she says, but the potential buyers wanted to do things like tear out the kitchen or break down walls.

“I didn’t want some random person coming in and changing everything,” she says. “What we’re trying to do is preserve it.”

The regulars wouldn’t have it any other way. In the afternoon, when people start getting off work, Zoe says the corner of the bar right by the door fills up, and “everyone knows not to sit at that corner around 2 or 3 p.m., because everyone has a seat.”

Everyone also has an assigned koozie that they’ve brought in themselves, she says. “We know, Sam comes in, we grab his Raiders koozie, he doesn’t even say anything, put his Raiders koozie, put his Coors Banquet, put it in front of him.

“There’s a lot of this unspoken routine,” she said.

Some of the traditions are a little out there. One of them has to do with a “Ghostbusters”-themed pinball machine in the corner of the game room. Zoe isn’t exactly sure what you have to do in the game to make it happen, but sometimes the machine will let out a loud scream, “and the whole bar claps.”

“It’s blood-curdling. It is loud, like someone is seriously in pain,” Zoe says. And when someone who’s never experienced it hears it for the first time, it’s “hysterical.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The “Ghostbusters” pinball machine is pictured Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in the game room at John Eddy’s, 3115 W. Sixth St.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Bud Light mascot Spuds MacKenzie watches over the bar on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at John Eddy’s, 3115 W. Sixth St.

Decades worth of memorabilia has accumulated behind the bar – football helmets, fantasy football and Kaw Valley Kickball League trophies, an old piece of a hardwood court from Lawrence High, a light-up version of the Bud Light mascot Spuds MacKenzie, which hasn’t been plugged in for a while. “We recently got a new cooler, so Spud’s plug had to be sacrificed,” Zoe laughs.

She says most of the decor is just things that Jay, a veteran bartender who also runs a booth at the antique mall, has found and brought in.

Jay has worked here since the Kaspar’s days, Zoe says. “There are people who’ve been coming here for 30 years who’ve had Jay serving them beers for 30 years.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

“Love letters” to the bartenders line the wall behind the bar at John Eddy’s, 3115 W. Sixth St., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.

There’s another tradition here where the servers will draw the bartender a little picture with a note on a scrap of paper, just showing their appreciation for their hard work. They’re stuck to the wall behind the bar, and even displayed in some of the booths.

“A lot of them are love letters to Jay,” Zoe says.

He and the other longtime workers deserve it, she says – they know how this place is supposed to work.

“Every time we look to Jay, he tells us to not overthink,” Zoe says. “Just keep it simple, this is how we do it, this is how we’ve always done it. You don’t need fancy cocktails; just pop the beer can, you know?”

“And be yourself,” John adds.

“Be yourself,” Zoe says.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

“Love letters” to the bartenders line the wall behind the bar at John Eddy’s, 3115 W. Sixth St., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.