WILMINGTON — Stanley’s Tavern in Wilmington is under new, but familiar, ownership after Ashby Hospitality Group announced acquiring the community-based sports bar.
Prior to its most recent purchase, the hospitality group owned six restaurants and employed over 200 employees. Marc Ashby told the Delaware Business Times that acquiring Stanley’s Tavern and adding it as the company’s seventh restaurant made sense for him and his business partner Jeremy Hughes.
“I think it was just sort of the perfect opportunity. Steve Torpey has had it for over 40 years under his operation and he’s just ready to retire and enjoy that. When we were offered to take a look at it and walked through it, we kind of fell in love with it,” Ashby said.
That walk-through reminded Ashby of his own past. His parents, Robert and Sandy Ashby, spent many years refining the restaurant business for the family with local colleagues such as Torbey himself.
“Forty-some years ago, my dad and Steve Torpey worked …