Blue Bay, Blue Grotto a unique enterprise

They don’t think of themselves as champions in the world of business and investment. That’s just the way it has worked out for Dwight and Renee Dirkmaat.

On land that once was home to a sports bar, the Dirkmaats and business partner Domingo “Tony” Orozco have brought to life one of the biggest restaurants and bars in Post Falls, Blue Bay family dining and Blue Grotto lounge at east Seltice Way and Greensferry Road.

“We have rehabbed a number of properties,” said Dwight Dirkmaat, 52, who co-owns the corner lot and building with his wife, Renee. However, he added, “this business is entirely different from anything else we have done, but the business principles are still the same.”

The remodeled 9,500-square-foot building houses the spacious Blue Bay restaurant in the east section, while across the takeout corridor extends the Blue Grotto and the building’s second bar.

With a staff of more than 45, the business can handle several hundred customers at any one time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Along with Mexican food, the restaurant offers seafood, steaks, salads and more.

For sports fans, up to 12 different games can be watched on the Blue Grotto’s many TV sets. Customers of any age can hang out there until 9 p.m., when the lounge switches to adults-only.

The business, which will have its official grand opening sometime this month, isn’t the first venture for the business partners.

Orozco, who owns the Blue Bay and Blue Grotto names and runs their day-to-day operations, also owns Las Chevalas Mexican restaurant in Coeur d’Alene and the sandwich shop, Casey’s Place, in Spokane Valley.

The Dirkmaats have made careers out of acquiring businesses in their infancy and selling them in their prime. They have owned many during their more than 30 years of marriage, ranging from a self-storage facility to countless seasonal shops and kiosks in Northwest malls. They even had a 53-foot-long semitruck that hauled their traveling scrapbook business.

With more business concepts under their belts than either can remember, Dwight and Renee Dirkmaat know a lot about the ins and outs of industry trends.

“We both are on the same page,” Dwight said, referring to the support each offers the other in their investments. “Renee is good at being able to look at something and say, ‘This is what is lacking and this is where it will be.’ ”

“We watch trends – you have to know what you are looking at first off,” Renee said. “But everything is a risk, of course.”

After acquiring the land where Steve’s Dugout once stood and being frequent customers of Orozco’s other establishments for 16 years, the Dirkmaats asked Orozco if he would be interested in expanding his restaurant know-how into a new arena. Orozco agreed.

Now, after some major renovation, fine-tuning of the menus and expanding of the restaurant’s and lounge’s roles with live entertainment, the Blue Bay and Blue Grotto investment has paid off. “This is more of a long-term enterprise,” Dwight Dirkmaat said while seated at a table in the restaurant. “The restaurant business is no different from any other business, in my opinion, because you still are delivering a product.”

Orozco added that the Dirkmaats have the ability to “look at a possible problem before it arises and deal with it. And I appreciate that.”

“Open communication that way is really important,” Renee said. “The bottom line is it’s a refining process anyway. … In any business, you have to be willing to change.”

The Blue Bay and Blue Grotto are available for large parties and gatherings and host live music on weekends.

“Things have been going good,” Orozco said. “We are a very, very unique place.”