For many years, if you wanted to stir up a lively debate, you’d ask Rochesterians, “Dinosaur or Sticky Lips?”
Dinosaur opened in the former Lehigh Valley Train Station in downtown Rochester in 1998. Sticky Lips opened at the corner of Culver Road and Atlantic Avenue in April 2004, making its presence known with the cheeky marquee, “I just spent my life savings. Please eat my food.”
Now one of Rochester’s most enduring barbecue brands is coming to an end; Sticky Lips BBQ Juke Joint will close at 830 Jefferson Road in Henrietta. Owner Howard Nielsen is retiring from the restaurant business after 42 years.
He cut his teeth as owner of Pizza Station, which he opened at 707 Park Ave. in 1982. It later became Chester Cab Pizza, which he sold in 2012.
Nielsen opened the second Sticky Lips in the former home to Roadhouse Grill in 2011. The spacious restaurant features an extensive menu, live music and a huge bar with 53 taps.
Nielsen said he’ll miss working with his staff and interacting with his customers, which over the years included actors John Lithgow and Blythe Danner as well as New York Yankees great Bucky Dent. The restaurant’s biggest moment was when the it appeared on the television show “Man vs. Food Nation” in 2011. It featured NASCAR racer Joey Logano attempting (and failing) to consume the 5-pound Atomic Bomb Challenge: a double cheeseburger and fries piled with a mountain of artery clogging toppings including an especially spicy meat hot sauce.
Nielsen said Sticky Lips will continue to honor catering and chicken BBQ fundraiser bookings; he may continue to take catering orders into September.
While Nielsen is retiring from the restaurant business, he still owns the building in Henrietta as well as the complex at the corner of Atlantic and Culver, at the site of the original Sticky Lips.
He has not set a closing date for the Sticky Lips Juke Joint, but he’s hoping to give customers a few weeks to make a final visit.
One of the last items on his to-do list: Find a home for the restaurant’s huge collection of antique memorabilia, which he accumulated over several years at auctions in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. While most of today’s auctions are conducted online, he’s hoping to find an auctioneer to host a live auction that’s open to the public.
“I’ve had a lot of fun with the restaurant,” he said. “It’s bittersweet for guys like me. It’s not 100% on my terms but it’s better than most.”
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Sticky Lips is open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m Sunday. It is closed Mondays.