Blarney Stone

JIM POOLMAN President of Slainte Holdings

After creating a local restaurant concept from scratch and running a hotel franchise, Jim Poolman, President of Slainte Holdings, is in a position to start his own franchise if he and his partners decide to go that direction.

Poolman partners with Chad Wachter and Dustin Hollevoet to run Slainte Holdings.

After leaving the political arena, Poolman and partners founded The Blarney Stone in 2009. Their building in downtown Bismarck was for sale. It had been a Chinese restaurant called The Golden Dragon, and Poolman was attracted to the high ceilings and mezzanine-level balconies. The partners wanted to find a restaurant concept that fit the architecture. They looked at franchising an English pub concept headquartered in Toronto but concluded they could create it themselves.

“Little did we know we would have four of them,” Poolman said. “Little did we know that they would be as popular as they are.”

Around the same time, he and his partners began looking at a hotel franchise. There was a parcel of land available in northwest Bismarck that they felt would be a prime location for a hotel. They franchised Hampton Inn, a mid-level hotel brand in the Hilton hotel family.

At the time, there were no other hotels in that area. They liked the proximity to Bismarck State College and the North Dakota Capitol.

After five years, the partners built a Blarney Stone freestanding location in West Fargo.

“We took a chance there in an underdeveloped part of West Fargo right off the interstate,” Poolman said.

“Right after we built came three brand new hotels which immediately gave us a customer base. It’s very difficult in Fargo to get a liquor license. They are super expensive. West Fargo gave us a liquor license at 5 percent of the cost.”

The Sioux Falls, S.D., location came another five years later. Sioux Falls has a vibrant downtown, and Poolman said it took longer for the Blarney Stone concept to take hold.

“Sioux Falls didn’t really know our brand,” Poolman said. “It took a while for people to break away from their old habits and give us a try. Once they did, it really took off.”

Last year, the partners bought the Hotel Donaldson in downtown Fargo. They remodeled the hotel and brought their Blarney Stone restaurant concept to the ground floor. Poolman said people are protective of the Hotel Donaldson brand identity in Fargo.

“We worked very hard in downtown Fargo to respect the concept that had been created,” Poolman said. “When Karen Stoker had done that place, she essentially started the renaissance of downtown Fargo. That to me was important since we had essentially done the same thing (with Blarney Stone) in downtown Bismarck.”

Poolman said if the partners were to franchise The Blarney Stone, they would want to be involved in owning the real estate.

“I’m super proud when people from different parts of the state and different parts of the country ask when we’re going to put a location in their town,” Poolman said. “We’ve heard requests for Minot, Grand Forks, Omaha, Neb., Arizona. We put money aside every month for growth, so we’re not done yet.”