Mitchell Harrison and Kreg Newman have bought the bar from its founding owner, Vestavia Country Club tennis pro Jeff Baker. Harrison, who is in the steel business, and Newman, who is in banking, both have experience in real estate investment. But it was a fondness for their “local” that tipped the scales, Harrison said Wednesday.

“It’s just a place we have really enjoyed,” he said.

While their tabs will move from the revenue side of the ledger to the expense side, the two new owners won’t be moving from their bar stools.

“We’re going to remain on the outside” of the bar, Harrison said. “We want to be bar owners, not bar operators.”

Harrison and Stephen Marcum, a manager, said the Second Avenue North watering hole is going to get a good scrubbing and new air-cleaning equipment. But it will remain mostly unchanged. Its appeal, Harrison said, is that it’s a neighborhood bar at the center of a loft district that increasingly looks like a community.

“We’re really looking forward to this,” he said.

This item was published in The Insider, a weekly column in The Birmingham News Business section.

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2011/03/birminghams_metro_bistro_custo.html