Class of 2017 Marshalltown High School graduate, Marshalltown Community College alum and current Iowa Army National Guard Sgt. Luz Morciego is so used to people mispronouncing her first name that she typically instructs them to say it as “Lucy without the Y.” It’s so ingrained in her now that the new watering hole she and her boyfriend Edgar Chaidez are preparing to open at the former home of Dave and Sally’s will be known as Lucy’s Dive Bar.

“When I first started introducing myself, (Chaidez) started catching on that that’s how I introduce myself, so then we came up with like ‘Oh, let’s name it Lucy’s.’ It’s catchy. It comes from the past, but it’s still (timeless) to this day. So that’s how Lucy’s came up,” Morciego said.

Morciego and Chaidez, a recruiter with the Guard who grew up in Chicago before moving west to attend Iowa State University and earning a master’s degree in business, have been renovating the space at 207 E. Main St., that they are renting from new property owner Steven Hayden for the last several months ahead of the grand opening of Lucy’s Dive Bar from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday, March 7. It’s been a labor of love for the young couple and a chance to offer something for everyone in one of downtown Marshalltown’s many historic buildings.

Chaidez was initially looking into starting a mobile bar business when he and Morciego began discussing the prospect of taking over the bar as he already had over a decade of experience in the industry DJing, bartending and bouncing. Luz’s mother, Sonia Morciego, owns the Seven Rayos Liquor Store just down the street, where previous Dave and Sally’s Owner Denny Gray frequently bought alcohol to stock the bar.

“My mom brought it up to me, and that’s how we came and met Denny. We talked to him at the place for the first time, because I’d never been in here until I met Denny,” Morciego said. “We both agreed that there’s a lot of potential here, and then Steven bought the building. And we rent the whole bar area from him.”

As the conversations became more serious, Chaidez described the situation as “the opportunity of a lifetime,” and after Hayden closed on the property in late September, the couple got to work on installing new bar tops, speakers and TVs to transform the space and get the job done right.

“With this old building, you just don’t ever know what other problem is gonna pop up, and really it’s just, like, trying to tiptoe around it so you don’t cause any more issues,” Chaidez said. “But we didn’t want to change too much here because we love the bricks. We love the ceiling, all that stuff here. This is a really cool building, so we just wanted to bring it back to life a little bit and then add a little flare to it.”

As they previously mentioned, the bar’s massive square footage and separate sections — the main area, the outdoor patio and the basement — offer opportunities for a wide variety of experiences whether patrons hope to watch a game, play pool, listen to music or host a private event.

“The big thing here is the fact that all of our bartenders know how to make your craft cocktails and all that stuff, so you could get a great drink. You can get a martini. You can get any of that stuff here while watching the game,” Chaidez said. “Really, the biggest thing is just (that) we want to see how we can diversify and bring in as many people as we can from all walks of life… We keep saying ‘There’s so much potential. There’s so much potential.’ Now it’s like ‘How do you capitalize on that potential?'”

They also plan to renovate the kitchen and start serving food again at some point in the near future. Last weekend, the couple hosted a soft opening to work out the kinks, but they’ll be busy with drill this weekend — hence waiting until next Friday for the grand opening featuring Clare’s Tenderloins by Mya Cowell.

The tentative plan is for Lucy’s to be open seven days a week, but that could change depending on demand and the flow of customers. Chaidez also plans to keep his full-time job with the Guard, while Morciego will be focusing her attention on opening the bar and letting her night owl boyfriend close it down.

“It’ll be a fun ride. I’m excited for it all. But definitely, with recruiting, it’s got its own challenges. Sometimes I’m up at five in the morning. Sometimes I don’t come home until 8:00 at night. It’s just very unpredictable, so hopefully we can get this off its feet, goin’ and rock n’ rollin’, and maybe I just take a step back and go back to one weekend a month,” Chaidez said. “Who knows? But we’ll see how we manage it. Luckily, we’re working at this together, so it’s not just all on me at this point. That’s a blessing.”

And with only a handful of bars currently open in the downtown area, Morciego is optimistic about bringing something new to the mix and appealing to people who want to enjoy a cocktail hour or a fun night out but don’t want to drive to Ames or Des Moines.

“I think everything’s gonna play out as we want it to, and the more I talk to people, it’s like ‘What do you look into when you want to go out?’ And people tell me ideas,” she said. “And bringing a little bit of that into it is gonna be great.”

Chaidez, who is no stranger to the Ames nightlife as an ISU alum, hopes college students and young professionals will find themselves at home when they step into Lucy’s, and Morciego wants to create an environment where everyone feels safe and welcome. Lucy’s can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570858799827, and the tentative initial hours are as follows: Monday through Thursday 4 to 11:30 p.m.; Friday: 4 p.m.-2 a.m., Saturday: 12 p.m.-2 a.m. and Sunday 12 p.m.-11:30 p.m.

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Contact Robert Maharryat 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.