The D&C did a great write-up and video on Sticky Lips and the new A.C. Junction!
Sticky Lips expansion on track
by Pete Wayner, Democrat and Chronicle
Barbecue is making Howard Nielsen bigger. Well, not literally. But his business, Sticky Lips Pit BBQ, is definitely feeling the love of Rochester’s penchant for pulled pork and beef brisket.
“I always say entrepreneurs are probably the poorest people you ever meet because we have this gene in us that keeps wanting to develop more and do more projects, so we make money, but then we spend it,” Nielsen says. “That’s kind of my life.”
Nielsen bit into the Rochester barbecue game in 2004, when he opened Sticky Lips Pit BBQ on the corner of Culver Road and Atlantic Avenue.
“I really love the neighborhood,” he says. “A lot of people thought I was nuts for opening up down here, but we proved them wrong.”
Yet Sticky Lips has become something of a Rochester landmark, with the Americana and nostalgic memorabilia along its walls; its trademark red lipstick stickers are smacked on car bumpers throughout the city and made national TV when Man v. Food Nation filmed there in 2012.
The popularity spurred Nielsen in 2011 to open a second location, Sticky Lips BBQ Juke Joint, 830 Jefferson Road. With 12,000 square feet, it features a full bar and live music — neither of which can fit in the Culver Road location.
“We’re having a lot of success out there,” Nielsen says. “Unfortunately I think maybe we’ve overshadowed the original (Sticky Lips) a little bit.”
In 2012, the rest of the Culver Road building housing Sticky Lips went up for sale. Nielsen bought it, adding 33,000 square feet of available space for an expansion. The first phase of his A.C. Junction (A.C. stands for Atlantic/Culver) project will be completed in the next couple weeks, with a 2,500-square-foot catering kitchen for Sticky Lips and three storefronts.
“I want to make a little bit of an entertainment district,” Nielsen says, with possibly a microbrewery, coffee shop and more.
The catering kitchen was sorely needed for the restaurant, which provides food for several barbecue fundraisers as well as private events, he says. Now, the restaurant will be able to take on more and bigger jobs.
Sticky Lips customers will be happy to know that the parking lot, full of pot holes and other issues, has been leveled and new drainage, lighting, curbs and security cameras have been added.
The second phase of the project, which should be completed later this year, will be the expansion of the actual Sticky Lips restaurant and more storefronts.
The restaurant will then become Sticky Lips BBQ City Music Hall and live music will be offered, as well as a bar area. Nielsen hopes the full project, including other businesses moving in A.C. Junction, will create between 100 and 150 new jobs.
Nielsen has not asked for any tax breaks.
“We’re really excited,” Nielsen says. “I think the neighborhood’s really excited about it.”