 "Photo: The Olympian/ Ted Copeland")
 "Photo: The Olympian/ Ted Copeland")
 "Photo: The Olympian/ Ted Copeland")
Local bar owner Mary Jo Abernathy-Rose started taking classes summer quarter at Olympic College who owns her own bar, South Pacific Sports Bar.
“I originally was going to take Accounting 201 to grasp a better understanding for my finances but I found it very interesting and enjoyed Richard Snapp’s accounting class,” said Abernathy-Rose.
She decided to continue her accounting classes and to work towards her degree.
Abernathy-Rose worked in developing software her whole working career and her husband, David, ran his own Djing business.
She worked days and he worked nights and she finally got bored with her job and decided to buy a bar so she could see her husband more.
When she bought the building in September 2002, her immediate family and friends helped to put it together. Abernathy-Rose has two children, Justin, 20, and Kayla, 19. Her children were able to help out until she got the liquor license for the building. Before the liquor license her family and friends worked 22 hours straight for two months until it opened on Dec. 15.
Since she has opened the bar she has had difficulty advertising it.
In the past five years she has had to fight the city in an eminent domain suit.
The city wanted to tear down the block that her bar is on, but after a long period she and the other businesses around her won the eminent domain suit and were able to keep their buildings.
Shortly after they won theyíre suit the city started building a tunnel, it was very hard for customers to get to the bar or even know about it with all the construction.
Now that the construction is over Abernathy-Rose has a plan to spruce up the place.
"I want to fix the awning outside the building, repair led signage, and re-build behind the bar," she said.
After "sprucing" the place up she wants to advertise the business, mainly by doing a TV commercial.
She also has four levels to the building and two are not being used. She plans to put in a steak restaurant on one of the floors.
"There is certainly room for a lot of growth," said Abernathy-Rose.
Abernathy-Rose is having a lot of fun running her own bar and restaurant.
She has live bands, DJ's, rocky-karaoke, which is karaoke with a band, she pays for UFC fights and she has football and baseball games playing.
In the past she has had several celebrities and sports stars come to the bar including the Seahawks cheerleaders.
Abernathy-Rose bases everything for her business on what customers say. She has a survey that they can volunteer to fill out that has a list of questions on how the customer service was and what changes for their menu and whether they had a good time or not and their overall experience.
"I wanted to do the bar in a tropical setting so that when people came in it felt like they are escaping Bremerton and I wanted people to have a good time in a fun and safe environment," Abernathy-Rose said.
During the slow times and breaks at work she finds time to do her accounting homework. She is happy that she has something she can leave for her kids to run. Her daughter Kayla is already taking business classes to do so.
"It's not rocket science to run a business; itís mainly listening to customers, making smart decisions, and being organized. If you know what you want, go for it, and give it your all." Abernathy-Rose said.
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