New Covington pub will celebrate local baseball heritage

Owners of the popular Dickmann’s Sports Café in Fort Wright will open a new bar and grill at Covington’s Roebling Point next summer.
 
The new entertainment spot will be named after baseball legend Smoke Justis, who played for the storied Covington Blue Sox — the professional team who spent less than a season here in 1913 — in a stadium at Scott Blvd. that has since been replaced by the Kenton County Parking Garage.
 
True to its name, Smoke Justis will serve a variety of meat-forward entrees that will include Kentucky Hot Brown, chicken wings and sliders. The bar will also feature craft beer and bourbon as well as vintage sports décor.
 
Owner Richard Dickmann is excited to join the spate of Covington restaurants currently thriving at the south end of the Roebling Suspension Bridge.
 
“I don’t see any change in my lifetime of where the urban core is going. I only see it getting better,” said Dickmann, whose family has operated Dickmann’s Sport Café for 22 years. Dickmann moved to downtown Covington four years ago. “When you walk outside the building and look north, there is not a better vantage point than Court Street.”