Here’s a thing men do. When hard drinking with friends or brothers, one of them will invariably get the best idea he’s ever had. “We should buy our own bar!” The friend or brother will listen, give the idea its due consideration, weigh the pros and cons and then respond with, “Dude, we should totally buy our own bar.” They discuss names for a while, drink a few more, pass out, wake up the next morning and then go on with the business of their lives. That is the story of Danny and Donnie Boyer in all respects but one. Buying their own bar is exactly what they did. Danny and Donnie Boyer have been the co-owners of Legends on Massillon Road in Green for almost two years. While they say they would have been happy with just a little dive bar, Legends is to dive bars what Las Vegas is to sleepy little towns. Vaulted ceilings echoing contemporary pop. A pool table. A wall of plasma screen TVs flickering an NBA playoff game on ESPN, a hockey playoff game on ESPN2, professional poker on ESPN3. Imagine the quintessential arrested-development playground and you’ll be imagining Legends. Sitting there, I kept waiting for Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis to shamble through the door and say, “I don’t remember any of this,” followed by Vince Vaughn ad-libbing his way towards a valuable lesson on growing up via the selfless love of a woman more attractive and talented than he is. But then my wings arrived and I got distracted. The Boyer brothers are living their dream, but like any dream, it was preceded by way, way too much reality. Donnie Boyer had been toiling for almost two decades, working his way through the service industry ranks from bussing to bean-counting, when the previous owner of Legends asked him if he was interested in taking the place off his hands. “I’ll never forget that day,” said Danny Boyer. “It was high fives.” “I was putting in hardwood floors for almost 15 years, thinking, ‘How am I ever going to get out of this?’” he added. “Donnie singlehandedly pulled me out of that.” In the years that followed, the brothers put much work and money into making Legends their own, expanding the layout to the point where the bar and restaurant seating is only a fraction of what Legends has to offer. Beyond a wall of smoke-tinted mirrors, they’ve built a live-act stage, a DJ booth, a dance floor and a second bar. And beyond that space, they expanded the patio from 800 square feet to 2,000, installing an awning, a hot tub and a tiki bar. They’ve done so much work in such a short amount of time — trying to stay “a step ahead and a level above other bars,” as Danny Boyer described it — that some of their regular clientele have no idea the room they’re eating in is where Legends begins, not ends. Just as the space itself is in constant flux, so too is the menu. Not that there’s anything particularly revolutionary on the menu; Legends offers, for the most part, the time-honored go-tos like burgers, quesadillas, wings and the like. But with that landscape serving as their culinary foundation, the brothers are constantly looking for ways to reinvest in quality. Their latest offering is a prime-rib special every Saturday night. Where else can you get a cut of prime rub the size of a spare tire and two sides for $14.99? And if that doesn’t take off, the brothers will try something else. And if that doesn’t take off, they’ll try something else yet again. Because, really, it’s not just a bar the Boyer brothers are investing in. What they’re investing in with every cent they put back into Legends is the resilience of the human spirit. “It seems like even in the hardest of times, people will still find a reason to drink a beer,” said Danny Boyer. “Who wants to sit at home and wallow in their misery?” The Boyer brothers know a thing or two about misery. They know a thing or two about what it’s like to put your dreams on hold. And the lesson they learned as well as anyone, and are now trying to share with as many people as they can, is that sometimes finding that one bar to call your own just might be the thing that makes all the difference.