Half Baked Bar infuses new life into North End Rockford restaurant space
By Helen Karakoudas
Special to the Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A bar on the city’s North End is being infused with a new concept centered on locally grown hemp products.
Management at 908 W. Riverside Blvd. is the same. The giant elephant statue is still there. So is the arcade. As local bands start taking the stage again, you’ll still be able to nosh on appetizers like fried pickle chips and mini corn dogs.
But other things are changing in the North End restaurant and music venue that used to be Stockyard Rock Burger Bar — from mainstays on the food menu, to mixers at the bar, to locked display cases near the entrance. The 6,075-square-foot space in North Towne Plaza is now Half Baked Bar.
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Half Baked Bar is a pizza-focused eatery that offers farm-to-table, hemp-derived cannabinoid infusions for alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks. It also sells a range of farm-to-table hemp products, including edibles and baked goods. You still will be able to get the beer and mixed drinks that Stockyard offered.
“This concept will be a game changer for the restaurant and bar industry. It will bring something new, unique and exciting to our current nightlife culture — not only here in Rockford and the surrounding areas, but also throughout Illinois,” said Billy Ni, who has been the sole owner of Stockyard Rock Burger Bar since mid-December 2021, after the death of his partner David Boge. Ni is also now the majority partner in Half Baked Bar.
To transform, launch and operate the space as Half Baked Bar, Ni has partnered with John Murray and Erik Carlson, part of the team behind Rockford’s organic hemp-growing business, Buckbee Weed Co., 1018 S. Main St., and co-owners of Mrs. Buckbee’s Wake-N-Bakery, 275 Deane Dr.
Half Baked Bar is in the strip across the parking lot from Cliffbreakers and to the right of Sav A Lot.
“We’re creating a chillaxing and social environment,” Murray said. “We’ve spent time trying to make this happen.”
Work on the new concept began nearly a year ago.
A soft opening, with presentation of the cheese pull on the new menu’s first pizza, was last week. Decorative changes continue to be made to the interior, including the painting of murals behind the stage that put an imagined decade-by-decade Rockford spin on the weed industry.
The owners hope to hold a grand opening before Christmas.
There’s lots to cover with this new hospitality concept. We’ll help you weed through the changes below, starting with the food.
The munchies menu
Mike Thall, the charismatic Stockyard manager and music coordinator who named the rock-themed burgers headlining the old menu, also created the Half Baked Bar menu. Gone are the burgers and salads; in are pizza and wings.
Despite their name, none of the Stoned Pizzas have CBD. They are 14-inch pies baked in stone ovens from dough made fresh daily. You can order a thin crust, made with flour, or a tavern thin crust, made with flour and cornmeal.
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Starting with a cheese pizza at $14, you can build your own from a list of 11 toppings (including pineapple).
Or you can choose among nine specialty pizzas, ranging from $18 for The Buckbee (sauce, mozzarella, red onions, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives, green olives) to $22 for The Super Supreme (sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon, Canadian bacon, red onions, black olives, green peppers, mushrooms).
Wings come bone-in or boneless, with housemade ranch or blue. Among the 14 flavors, many of which were on the Stockyard menu, is an exceptional new one: gochujang.
Thall kept fan-favorite appetizers and added pizza puffs, waffle fries, and two more options for dunking in ranch dressing: Sriracha white–cheddar cheese curds, and bacon, cheddar and chives-stuffed tater kegs.
“We needed tasty, salty, savory food people crave when they’re high,” Carlson said. “And with the new menu, we got good munchie food.”
Hemp infusions for drinks
Like The Canna Cafe and Murray and Carlson’s own Mrs. Buckbee’s Wake-N-Bakery, Half Baked Bar can serve hemp–derived products that contain limited amounts of THC as allowed under the farm bill. Because Half Baked Bar isn’t a dispensary like Lyfe Dispensary, Sunnyside or The Happy Cannabis Co., it cannot serve recreational cannabis with higher THC concentrations.
With the groundwork for state regulation of hemp consumption still being laid in Springfield, owners say they’re being extra cautious about THC infusions.
At Half Baked Bar, you can order any nonalcoholic drink infused with a product that Murray and Carlson derive and process from the hemp they grow: CBC, CBD, CBG, CBN, delta-8 THC, delta-9 THC or THC-V. For infusion virgins, a menu lists the effects of each, including relief from pain and anxiety, mood lifting, and sleep aid. For delta-8 THC, the effect is “Body Buzz.” For delta-9 THC, “Head High.”
If you order either of these, or THC-V (“Energy & Focus”), expect a checkpoint.
“We card hard and don’t sell to people under 21,” Carlson said when asked about THC in a nonalcoholic drink.
Should you be worried about a weed aftertaste when ordering an infusion for a nonalcoholic drink, Murray has you covered. He’s overseeing creation of seasonal and rotating mocktail recipes with ingredients portioned in such a way that minimizes any bitter or earthy tones from the infusion. You can currently choose among three mocktails: lemonade, peach Bellini (a fruit juice and lemony syrup mix mimicking the classic cocktail), and Witches Brew (a blend of tea, fruit juices and syrups).
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If you’re ordering a gin and tonic or any other alcoholic drink at Half Baked Bar, your options for an infusion are CBC, CBD, CBG and CBN—but not delta-8 THC, delta-9 THC or THC-V, according to Carlson.
“We’re not going to add THC to anything that can already impair you,” he said.
“As responsible business owners, we are already self-regulating by living up to the consumer safety standards that we are working to have enacted,” Carlson said, referring to a push for rules on delta-8 hemp products for HB 4161, the bill in the Illinois General Assembly on consumable hemp licensing. “We are sending all of our products out for third–party testing for purity and potency, we apply appropriate warnings and information on our labels, and we only serve potentially intoxicating products to persons over 21. Our goal is to be a living example of how these safety measures will be implemented.”
Other hemp products
Secure, glass-enclosed displays at the entrance showcase a sampling of Buckbee Weed Co.’s hemp-derived products: delta-8 and delta-9 brownies, cookies and marshmallow crispy snacks; THCA flowers, THCA pre-rolls, THC-blend and live resin vape pens, delta-8 gummies, and live resins.
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According to Carlson, he and Murray have more than 400 hemp-derived products in research and development, with their new focus being the hospitality industry.
“We have edibles, drinkables, smokables, vapables, dabbables and topicals,” Murray said, listing what’s available at Half Baked Bar. “The only thing we don’t have here is suppositories.”
Stockyard’s sibling businesses
Stockyard Rock Burger Bar opened in the spring of 2018 in the space where Boomer’s, which closed in September 2017, had been for five years.
Stockyard was the second in a group of four pub and grills owned by the one-time hospitality team of Andy Roiniotis and Denny Trakas, now known for their Rock’n Vodka enterprise. Roiniotis and Trakas, who had started out with RBI Brunch Bar, had also opened District Bar and Grill in Rockford and Onyx Bar and Grill in Machesney Park. Ni was the regional manager for Stockyard, District and Onyx.
In a partnership with David Boge, Ni bought those three properties in January 2021 as Roiniotis and Trakas began pulling out of the restaurant business to focus on their fast-growing spirit company. Less than a year after the purchase of Stockyard, District and Onyx, Boge died.
Ni’s partnership in Half Baked Bar with Murray and Carlson extends to District and Onyx. Mocktails, hemp infusions for drinks, and hemp-derived products to eat, smoke, vape and dabble are already available at District. They’re coming soon to Onyx.
“I am extremely excited about this new partnership and am looking forward to begin this new journey with John and Erik,” Ni said. “This fresh concept will allow all of our locations to grow our customer base.”
About | Half Baked Bar
Where: 908 W. Riverside, Rockford
Hours: Still being determined. Currently, noon to 10 p.m. or midnight.
Phone: 815-708-8663
On social: facebook.com/stockyardrockburgerbar
This article is by Helen Karakoudas. Email any feedback to news@rockrivercurrent.com.
