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MAGNET – There is a business in Magnet that has prided itself on attracting people to gather in the community since 2014.
Jason Becker and Tony Kumm, the co-owners of the Magnet Bar, want people to join them on Saturday, June 1 in celebrating 10 years of taking the backroads to town and “getting magnetized” – part of their business’ slogan – at their establishment.
The bar, which has a beer garden in the back, is scheduled to open at 2 p.m. that day, with a meal of steak sandwiches, beans, salads and chips starting at 5 p.m. and live music provided by the 888 Road Band for a street dance going from 8 p.m. to midnight.
“We’re just kind of a meeting place for locals and outsiders alike to all gather,” Kumm said.
Neither Becker nor Kumm can believe they’ve operated the business for a decade in the downtown part of Magnet, a village of about 40 people.
“It doesn’t seem possible,” Becker said. Kumm agreed that time has “flown by.” “It’s all been good,” Kumm said. Becker described the bar as an “out-of-the-way place,” with Kumm adding the business has a “central location for all the different towns” in the surrounding area.
Kumm said the bar is known for having live music on the first Sunday of the month during the late fall through the winter, usually November-March.
“Probably our busiest days are Sundays (year-round),” Kumm said, though he did not have a clear reason on why that is, but several small-town businesses are usually closed on Sundays.
The business also usually hosts a hotdog benefit each September and donates the proceeds to the El Riad Shrine’s Transportation Fund.
In addition, the bar typically hosts the Tri-County Cruisers, a regional classic car club, for an annual meal.
There had not been a bar at the site since 1998 until Becker and Kumm, who are both full-time farmers, opened it under their ownership in 2014.
“It was closed for a good number of years before we reopened it,” Becker said. “It had been a bar previously.”
Becker, who lives in Magnet, and Kumm, a rural Wausa resident, had talked for several years about opening a bar at the location.
“We just decided to buy it and start a business here in town, which we thought we could use and have something going on here in Magnet,” Becker said.
Kumm agreed. “We just wanted to provide a service to the community and the surrounding area,” Kumm said.
Kumm said the bar has always offered pizza for food but recently made a change from frozen to fresh.
“We’ve actually started making our own homemade pizzas now,” Kumm said.
Tammy Bowers, a co-manager of the business along with Becker and Kumm, is the one who is in charge of making the pizzas and freezing them ahead of time.
“She takes care of the day-to-day (operations),” Becker said, adding Bowers is one of the bar’s many “good employees.”
Kumm said he and Becker are proud to have served Magnet and the surrounding area for the last 10 years with their business and they are “shooting for another 10.”
“We appreciate everybody’s business,” Becker said. The bar opens at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.
