Moguls owner Salmeri reflects on 30 years
By Polly Mikula
After 30 years, owner Robert “Sal” Salmeri is selling Moguls Sports Pub and Restaurant to Killington Mountain School (KMS), which owns the abutting property.
The $1.5 million deal was set to close Wednesday, July 31.
Moguls is located at the intersection of Killington Road and West Park Road — almost exactly halfway up the access road. It’s on 2 acres of land with views of the mountain.
Salmeri decided to sell the iconic bar to KMS after considering his options. “I had wanted to keep Moguls what it was, but I could not find a qualified buyer who would be able to do it successfully,” he said. “When KMS approached me I began to consider how that could be a real win-win-win for everyone involved. KMS is a real asset to this community and I want to help them grow.”
This isn’t the first time Salmeri has helped KMS grow. He sold his former house in Killington to the school in the early 2000s.
“I sold my house on West Park Road so that KMS could grow then and they took on about 30 more students,” Salmeri said. “The sale of Moguls will help them grow by about 50 more; that’s about 100 more parents, too. So this is a way to help the school and the town grow, which is something I really believe in.”
Salmeri isn’t sure exactly what KMS will do with the building and land, but said they have been considering many options including using it initially as a cafeteria and classrooms, which would likely require the least work. Eventually it could be made into dorms as it was a hotel prior to his converting it into a restaurant. Or it could be made into a gym.
“I think they’re going to let the architects do their thing,” he said. “They have lots of options.”
Leading up to the sale Salmeri was working non-stop to clean out the place. “I’ve touched every dollar bill that was up on that ceiling… every picture on the walls,” he said.
“To be honest, it’s tearing my heart apart taking the place apart… I don’t think many people understand the love, sweat equity, blood, and tears that have made this place and are now unmaking it. This has been one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make. But I think it’s the right choice. I think it’s going to be good for the community.”
“There are plenty of bars for people to go to,” he added. “But they’re not going to forget this place.”
Salmeri held his own “official retirement party” on April 21, which was also the annual pig roast and the last day Moguls was open. Hundreds flocked from all over the U.S. to attend the event and reminisce. Salmeri had hosted the annual pig roast for 28 years of his 30 at that location.
“This restaurant has seen so many kids grow up and they’ve have had their own kids, people wanted to come back one last time… I saw ‘kids’ who were now 6-feet tall that I hadn’t seen since they were too small to reach the games,” he remembered. “People told so many stories.”
“I’ve been blown away by all the love and support over all the years,” Salmeri reflected. “It’s really starting to set in now that I’m going to retire. But retirement to me, is something a bit different… I’m just retiring from managing the bar. I’m going to be on the other side of the bar now… I’m going to miss seeing everyone, but you’re going to see me out and about,” he said. “It’s bittersweet.”
Many hands, giving back
Moguls isn’t a story of one man building it, Salmeri is quick to note. It’s always been done with a group of friends, a whole bunch of employees, and a ‘let’s get ‘er done!’ spirit.
“Cookie was with me 15 years, Jason Evans was with me part-time like 9 or 10, Lucile was probably 11, Robert was 15 before he retired. A lot of people have been with me a long time through thick and thin,” Salmeri reflected.
Mentors helped give him a leg up in the early days, too. “Claude Blais, Jay Shapiro and Kenny Budzena said ‘Come on down, let’s get you set up.’ People like that stepped up, they backed me, they believed in me and helped me get started,” Salmeri said. And the spirit of paying it forward took a strong hold in Salmeri who is perhaps best known for his generosity in fundraising. Nearly every event he has hosted over the past three decades has benefited at least one charity.
“The fundraisers, just like my animals, have been my No. 1 for all these years,” Salmeri said.
“I’ve worked for Sal for over 25 years. He will give you the shirt off his back,” said Dave Hoffenberg, a local deejay, who is now organizing a contest to guess how much money was removed from the ceiling at Moguls (it’s going to be donated to the Rutland Humane Society). “We’ve had our Pie in The Face for Chase benefit at Moguls since it’s inception in 2014. Sal and I threw the first pies, at each other, in year one. We started the pie-ing with each other last year for our 10th annual… Besides giving us Moguls to use, he gives us most of the supplies, and makes a donation, too.”
Stacie Szedlacik a regular at Moguls for 19 years echoed Hoffenberg, “Sal is the most generous, kind-hearted person I know. He is a great friend of mine and a giver to our community.”
In addition to the dollar bills from the ceiling, Salmeri is donating about $10,000 worth of Halloween decorations (two shipping containers worth) to the KPAA and Killington Elementary School to create a haunted house that, itself, can be run as a fundraiser; and has gifted most of his portable kitchen equipment to the fire department so they can be self-reliant and able to host barbecues fundraisers at town events, like the Fourth of July picnic.
“Like I said, shirt off his back. He gives, and gives, and gives some more,” Hoffenberg added.
Barbara Palmer, a visitor who became a homeowner, agreed: “From the first visit, it was obvious Sal was one of a kind… Over the next 20 years, Moguls became like home and Sal and Maggie became family and the first members of our extended Killington family. It began with Lucille and Cookie at the bar, and as the staff changed periodically, our extended family grew: Chel Lie, Yannick, Jason Evans, Decker, John O’Donnell, Red Baron, Tall Tom, Linda Ross, and so many others,” Palmer continued. “Sal always welcomed the opportunity to help those in need, in our case offering Moguls as the venue for a large fundraising event for a long time Ski School instructor. Sal came to know our kids, and our grandkids, who came to anxiously anticipate turkey bowling every year followed by hours in the game room. He definitely delighted in the kids because it was the best of both worlds: they came, loved his food and games, stuffed their faces, and then went home with their parents and Sal could enjoy some peace and quiet,” she said.
“Sal never changed,” Palmer continued. “His boundless energy must have been intimidating to his staff, but every one seemed to adore him… He was a tough business man with a heart of gold, and a damn good skier once we got him to dust off his skis and join us on the hill,” he added.
“When Sal reopened after the renovation (when he enlarged the kitchen and added the back room) we wanted to give him something for Moguls that would reflect who he was to all of us: a workaholic, stubborn to a fault, the best kind of friend, always wearing a smile, with his own way of doing things, which seemed to have served him very well over the years,” she said. “We decided on two trail signs, which still hang on the side wall. The black double diamond one points one way and says ‘Sals Way,’ and the green circle one points in the opposite direction, and says ‘The Highway.’ And that’s how it always was. ‘Sals Way’ was more challenging, more exciting, and definitely the better ride!” Palmer concluded.
Time to retire, a move to Killington?
“All the dynamics up here are changing and you gotta be able to change with the times,” Salmeri said. “I’m too old, too stubborn, to even want to,” he added. “I like hanging around chewing the fat, I don’t need the hustle bustle craziness. Not at 62. It’s a younger man’s sport.”
Margaret is also very happy to be retiring, he said. “She’s done the books and bartended for 28 years. She’s always rolled with the punches with me.”
And it wasn’t always easy.
“At Jax we lived underneath the pool tables and back then we had six so all you heard was the pool balls all night long. When we took over Zorba’s again we lived behind the kitchen and underneath the pool tables,” he said. “Back then, housing was an issue and back then we struggled like most new businesses do. Plus, I was just too stubborn and too stupid to quit.”
In total, Salmeri said he lived underneath a bar for 15 years.
While many folks who retire move south, Salmeri plans to stay engaged in this community. “I’ve been trying to move back to Killington since I left,” he said. “Margaret didn’t want to live close to the bar,” he explained. “So I built her her dream house in Pittsfield and now I can’t get her out of it,” he laughed.
But Salmeri is a realist, instead of idealizing Killington, he well knows the obstacles and opportunities the town faces.
“The more you’re involved the more chance you have to help make a change for the better,” he said. “If you walk away from it you can’t make a change, you can’t help the problem. You just turned your back on the problem. If you get involved, or are there for others to get involved, you can create change.”
Salmeri was a member of the chamber (now Killington Pico Area Association) for eight years in the early 2,000s and ran for Select Board. While he doesn’t intent to run for office again, he plans to be an active member of the community and be a force for positive change.
“The village is here and it’s gonna happen. If we put brakes on now, it’s only going to hurt this town. There are some things I’d like to see in this town. I was impressed with the turnaround we’ve seen with the golf course. So do I think these guys [current Selectman] can make a difference, yeah. Do I think the sour grapes in town are still bashing them, yeah… if you want to get involved and make a difference do so, but be realistic. Don’t say: ‘You did this. You did that.’ Instead say: ‘Have we tried this direction?’”
Over the years he’s been able to see what’s worked and what hasn’t for the town. There are some good models to follow and others that ought to serve as cautionary tales to learn from.
“As we grow we need to give new things a chance and work together,” he concluded. “It can’t be ‘my way or the highway,’ because that only works in your own business,” he advised, referencing the signs gifted to him for the bar. “Instead of complaining about it, grab a shovel.”
In true form, Salmeri added that he is grateful for all who helped make Moguls the iconic place it became for so many years. “I loves ya all and a huge thank you!!! Ski with ya soon.”
A short history of Salmeri/Moguls
Click the link for a short(ish) history of Sal Salmeri and Moguls, looking back at the past 3 decades.
