Jon Ferguson sells a bar, starts a family, foggy-style

Jon Ferguson is 35 years old, is about to start a family and has been the successful owner of Foggy Notions for the past decade.

Two locations, four business partners and countless live bands later, Ferguson has decided to pass the torch to a new generation of bar owners, with the sale of Foggy Notions to Pat Casey, Alec Colyer and John Doucette.

This past Christmas marked the bar's tenth anniversary.

In 1996, Ferguson was a tender 25 years old and found himself out at various locations around town, not completely satisfied with his surroundings.

"What would I like?" he asked himself.

"I'm not interested in this dance music that these clubs were playing. I always enjoyed live music and Chancey's was one of the few places you could go and see a guy with an acoustic guitar. I should be doing this rather than dump[ing] money into this other place."

The perfect opportunity stared him right in the face one day as he drove down Bay Street and gazed upon the For Lease sign and phone number on the side of the old Chancey's location.

"I looked at it and said it over and over to myself all the way home. I got on the phone and called the guy."

To this day he still remembers that phone number.

With no business or bar experience, Ferguson sought advice from Derek Robertson who, at the time, was involved with Misty's 50's.

After plans with his original partner fell through, Robertson became Ferguson's first business partner.

624 Bay Street had been sitting dormant for a spell but renovations took only three months and Foggy Notions officially opened its doors on December 20, 1996.

The first band to grace the stage at Foggy Notions was none other than Ferguson's own band at the time, Curious George.

The bar was massively successful and always supported local rock, pop and blues acts by featuring live music five days a week.

"We were the end of the good old days when people had money, had disposable incomes. They didn't have video game systems, computers or rent movies. They went to bars."

Foggy's thrived for two and a half years in the Bay Street location until, due to a graduated lease agreement, the rent doubled and Ferguson had concerns about the business being able to support itself.

Then followed a conversation with Dave Felton, the owner of Stonewalls and the building that housed it.

Felton told Ferguson he would lease his building for less than Ferguson was paying on Bay Street.

Ferguson pestered him until they reached an agreement.

The new location was almost twice the size, with a much more appealing atmosphere.

June 30, 1999 was the last day of business for Foggy Notion at 624 Bay Street and, amazingly, it reopened at 708 Queen Street on July 1, 1999.

"The next day it was basically whatever you could grab. We had a bunch of guys and grabbed that and grabbed that. We came over, plopped it on the shelves and went and bought more stock under the new license and away we went."

By this point, partner number two, Ryan O'Reilly, had entered the picture after buying Robertson's shares in the business.

O'Reilly had worked at Foggy's since the place opened and Ferguson felt he had the PR and networking skills to fill the position.

The first six months in the current site exceed their expectations, due in part to the novelty of the new location and the general appeal of the building itself.

The bar then became very consistent and leveled out to a comfortable existence for the next several years.

Two other partners - Pat Rosso and Brendan Fyfe - came and went until Jon was on his own as the sole owner of Foggy Notions for the last two years.

"When you're on your own, everything is on your shoulders. I automatically tightened everything up with overhead and stuff like that."

But being on his own wasn't all bad.

"When you have multiple partners or even one partner, the left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing. It just gets sloppy with expenses and payouts and stuff like that."

Since he was in complete control, he claimed he could finally sleep at night comforted by the knowledge of everything that was happening with his business.

Foggy Notions is infamous for having terrible bathrooms.

"There was one instance when I walked in there and someone had scratched among many other scribes of their lives and who they think is cute, Can you say renovations? I so wanted to take my keys out and scratch Can you say quit scratching the walls and we wouldn't have to renovate the place every three months? But needless to say, I didn't."

Ferguson confesses he maybe should have been more diligent but after multiple paint jobs and various unsuccessful solutions, he just gave up.

In the summer of 2004, a municipal bylaw was passed forbidding smoking in all bars, taverns, restaurants, diners and night clubs.

While Ferguson admits this law did hurt his business, it was not enough to take the wind out of his sails.

Most local establishments adapted and built patios for their smoking patrons.

But in 2006 when the provincial smoking law came into effect forbidding patios with fixed roofs, a whole new problem arose.

"Now the convenience factor is gone. Now everyone is out on the street, which in itself is another nightmare. I never had noise complaints until 30 or 40 percent of my crowd at any given moment during the night is displaced on the street."

On weekends, Ferguson would get two or three noise complaints a night.

Sault Ste. Marie being a border town only worsens the situation, as businesses from Sault Ste. Marie Michigan advertise that they allow smoking in their establishments, drawing potential business away from the community.

"The thing about the bar business is, sure it's a small sector of the private economy of the city, however, we have suppliers. It's a trickle-down effect.

"If they're not spending their money in the industry they could be spending it in the movie theatre, the movie rental shops, on video games or whatever they may be doing. At least that money is still in the community.

"When you start displacing these people and they're crossing the border being separated from that 50 or 100 dollars of disposable income, that's not coming back to our community."

But these complications and his forthcoming fatherhood are not the only reasons for the sale of the bar.

"I'm just done. It's ran its course. I'm out of the loop. I've walked in here on a busy night and not known a soul other than who's working for me. And the ambition is gone."

Ferguson claims the experience has completely exceeded his expectations although he admits he stuck out the last two years to satisfy his own pride.

He really wanted to make it to 10 years but was quick to add he will not miss it.

Ferguson would like to extend his heartfelt gratitude and sincere thanks to everyone who has supported the bar and those who have worked with and for him over the past 10 years.

He feels confident that the three new owners will be just as, if not more successful than he has and wishes them all the best.

He would also like you to know he is looking for a steady nine-to-five job.