Resilient Rosie’s Den betting big on comeback after disastrous fire
WHITE HILLS, Ariz. – It had gotten to the point where Brad Larsen, the owner of Rosie’s Den south of Hoover Dam, was starting to daydream about what it would be like to win with one of the Powerball lottery tickets he sells for a living; the losses from the fire were just too great.
For a man whose livelihood revolves around selling numbers, he’s been awash in them these days. The costs just keep adding up.
Heck, he even thought one of the "scratchers" for $10,000 would be a godsend.
Instead Larsen faced reality, bit the bullet and sold three acres of his property – and now he’s going to have a new neighbor: a Chevron gas station that’s expected to be built in the coming months.
It’s all part of the yin and yang, the give and take that comes with the rebuilding process out in the middle of the Mohave County desert, where there’s no shortage of open land. And it comes a little more than a year after the popular bar and cafe burned to the ground.
The blaze broke out in the early hours of Aug. 19, 2011, on the west side of Highway 93 between Kingman, Ariz., and Las Vegas.
The cause: electrical.
The curse: nearly $1 million in lost revenues.
But just you wait, Larsen swears. The new and improved Rosie’s Den will rise from the ashes of the fire like a the proverbial phoenix.
In fact, he says, you won’t be able to recognize it because it’s going to nearly triple in size.
It’s going to have nearly a dozen outdoor tables that bikers can motor up to, a pair of pool tables inside, a dart board, a jukebox, a larger kitchen and an even larger cafe. It’s going to have more walk-in coolers, more chefs, more waiters, more cooks.
It’s even going to have a designated area where bikers can pop the clutches on their hogs and "peel out" – and where customers can watch the rebels from a pair of rear windows from inside the bar.
"We’re moving forward on this. We’re going to rebuild this thing, and it’s going to be bigger and better," Larsen, 52, said as he stood alongside the year-old ruins Friday afternoon. "I can’t give you an exact date as to when, but let’s just say it’s ‘coming soon.’ "
When the fire was put out and the smoke cleared, it wasn’t just the family business that suffered hardship.
It put 20 employees out of work.
It forced Larsen to kick into emergency mode and sell the lottery tickets out of a tiny prefabricated apartment next door.
Worse yet, it made Larsen think of the "what ifs."
"I probably should have put in a sprinkler system," he said.
And yet despite all the hardships, or rather maybe because of them, Rosie’s Den managed to win "Retailer of the Year" and "Retailer of the Quarter" awards recently doled out by the Arizona State Lottery Commission.
Such accolades usually come with the territory when you’re one of the more popular lottery ticket-selling businesses in the Grand Canyon state.
Last year alone, Larsen’s place paid out nearly $300,000 in winnings and sold nearly $2 million in lottery tickets. Not bad under the circumstances.
As much as Larsen loves the plaques and the certificates for a job well-done, he’s still in short supply in the category of cash. Local donations have helped, and he’s grateful to the dedicated customers. He’s just got to get his hands on more, which is why he sold the land where Chevron plans to open shop.
"Times are tough," he said. "That fire made them tougher."
The family’s matriarch, the one and only Rosie Larsen herself, assures herself everything is going to be OK despite the odds, and she tries to assuage her son.
She’d know. At 87, she’s undergone several chemotherapy treatments for lung cancer in the last year, and knows what it’s like to be up against the odds, stare them right in the face and beat them.
She claims it’s because the family’s 30 acres of land is sacred. It’s got to be.
That’s why she built a chapel on its grounds nearly 12 years ago.
"But we never could have done this without the Nevadans," she said, dressed in pretty pink and clasping her hands while she looked up to the ceiling in her trailer, giving thanks. "If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be able to get through this. We owe a lot to you."
The family also owes a lot to the Nevada state constitution, which prohibits the sale of lottery tickets, effectively sending lottery aficionados to Rosie’s on a daily basis.
As for Larsen, should he ever win on one of the Powerball tickets he sells, he said he’d never quit what he does for a living. He’d go right on living where he is and he’d fix up the joint even more.
"I wouldn’t trade my job or this place for anything," he said. "I love it out here."
Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.
