Pouring heart into it: Warden bar owners are dedicated to their hometown, sports

WARDEN — It’s been more than a year since Robert Arredondo and his wife Brandi started Pitchers, the new sports bar here in Warden.

But it was only open for a few weeks before Gov. Jay Inslee ordered the state shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It would be tough for any new business, but Robert said the Warden community has been incredibly supportive, with some of the major food processors ordering to-go food for employees, and that has helped keep them in business.

“We opened a month before it all happened,” Robert said. “We haven’t closed since. We did to-go orders to keep some of the staff going, that’s kind of where we’ve been.”

Right now, Pitchers — located on the southwest corner of South Main Avenue and West First Street, right next to Main Street Hardware and Supply — is open at 25% capacity, though no one can sit at the bar or use the pool tables.

The menu is typical of what you’d find in a sports bar — wings, burgers, nachos, tacos — with six beers on tap and a full-service bar for which Brandi, who will tend, has big plans.

“Initially, I would have been more in the bar, so I’m just waiting for my bar to open. I have a lot of drink ideas,” she said. “The bar is fun.”

Robert, who also owns the trucking company Arredondo Custom Hauling (ACH) and has been the football coach at Warden High School for the last six years, said he started the sports bar mostly because he wanted a place to hang out.

A place a lot like the 1980s TV show “Cheers,” where “everybody knows your name.”

“I tell you, it seems odd, but I’m sitting there and I go, ‘Shoot, I like “Cheers,” how hard can it be?” Robert said, chuckling slightly.

The pandemic made it harder than it might have been, he said, but they’ve made a go of it despite it all.

Robert said he and Brandi didn’t borrow any money to start Pitchers, paying for everything out of pocket, and did a lot of the work remodeling the place themselves. It helps the trucking company pays the bills, and the last of their six kids just left home, so Brandi had some time to spend running a bar.

“We’re a sports family, all of our kids play sports, they’re all into sports,” Brandi said.

“The days start early, four or five in the morning, but that’s something that pays the bills,” Robert said.

But Robert also viewed Pitchers — despite being a football coach, his favorite sport is baseball — as more than just a hangout. He sees it as a place to honor Warden High School sports teams and athletes with memorabilia and a wall of fame.

“We have a rich tradition of Warden athletes not only going into college, but professional athletes coming out of this town,” Robert said. “We want to celebrate that. Once this bar is open, that’s going to be one of the first things. Maybe every three months, we’ll put on a celebration.”

Robert said he gravitated toward football because of the sport’s tight and supportive culture, and the best part of coaching is seeing the effect he has on the lives of the young men he coaches, particularly long after they’ve moved on from high school.

“I’ve gotten texts over the years from former players saying, ‘hey coach, I’m getting married’ or ‘I’m getting engaged,’” he said. “It’s humbling and you don’t really know what kind of impact you’ve had until you get that text or you get that picture and a message that says, ‘coach, I enjoyed the heck out of playing for you.’”

He said knowing the young men he coaches are actually listening and taking it all in forces him to pay attention to his own character and “makes you a better person pretty fast.”

For this year, with its abbreviated, five-game spring football season, Robert said he’s going to do all he can to make sure Warden High School seniors play as well as possible.

“I made it a point to do everything I possibly can for those young men,” he said. “They’ve got five games. They were shortchanged.”

It’s all about being committed to the small town, which gave them a purpose, gave them a place to raise their kids and be involved in the community and the lives of others.

Brandi said it was hard at first, though, and being from the Tri-Cities when they met, she wasn’t keen on moving to a small town like Warden.

“It’s been good,” she said. “Raising six kids, a small town is good. They played every sport, were involved in everything, so we stayed here.”

“We made some good friends along the way,” Robert added. “I wouldn’t want to struggle anywhere else but here.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].