We hit the 7-month mark on Saturday, here’s what’s happening behind the scenes at 443:
State Fair Break
We’re going to be closed for the 13 days of the NY State Fair, from Wednesday, August 21 through Labor Day. Not because we’re going to have a stand at the Fair, but because we just aren’t going to try and compete. Every year there are more live music options and the line up of free shows at Chevy Court has gotten better and better.
I know from experience booking entertainment for other restaurants that it’s almost futile to book shows and expect anyone to show up during the Fair, and so instead of sitting in an empty bar for 2 weeks hemorrhaging money, we’re taking the opportunity to work on some projects. – and we’re excited to dig in!
Name Change
The biggest item on my To Do list is getting our name change in motion. We’ve explored a lot of different ideas but ultimately came to the conclusion that simple is best. Since a lot of our guests already refer to us as “The 443”, we’re going to stick with that.
I had hoped to come up with something a little more clever, but The 443 is a good transition from The Listening Room at 443 and we should be able to make the change with minimal confusion.
The name change was forced due to to the cease and desist letter we received from the Listening Room in Nashville (I wrote about that HERE), but we likely would have looked at a name change sometime down the road anyway. Our ticketed shows are almost always listening room style, but our other events are not – so we’ve had confusion from guests about what they should expect.
We’re also changing our tagline from “Cafe & Lounge” to “Social Club & Lounge”.
With 7 months under our belt, we’ve realized that the bar and live music components of our business are working far better than the cafe component. We thought that a coffee house/cafe would be a great addition to the Hawley Green neighborhood but we just have not been able to generate enough interest in it…so we’re focusing our energy on the parts that ARE working. We’re also finding that having “cafe” in our name encourages people to bring children into the bar at night, which is not something we allow – I wrote about why we made that decision HERE. We had another scary incident with an unattended child a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to remove the “cafe” reference from the name and replace it with something that better reflects the kind of space we have.
According to Wikipedia, a social club is a group of people or the place where they meet to enjoy a common interest or activity. I think that fits our place nicely, don’t you?
The name change is a pretty massive project – I have submitted the paperwork for the new DBA under our current LLC. Once that goes through I have to let the State Liquor Authority know, and in the meantime, I have to move our website and update our social media channels and graphic materials.
Farewell, Rancillio…Until we Meet Again
Before we opened, we were gifted with this gorgeous espresso machine courtesy of Laura Serway and Cindy Seymour of Laci’s Tapas Bar.
We thought coffee drinks would be a bigger portion of our business, but we just haven’t been able to develop it the way we had hoped. So while this sexy beast is an impressive focal point behind our bar, it’s not a good use of the real estate it sits on. We have a lot happening in our small bar area and every inch counts.
We’ve been wrestling with the decision for a while. But, since we aren’t selling much in the way of espresso-based drinks but we ARE selling booze and food, it makes more sense to use the space to make those items more efficient. We’ll still have awesome drip coffee, pour overs and cold brew to take care of your daily caffeine fix.
The 443 VIP Patron Program
We’re putting the finishing touches on our VIP Patron Program, which is something we’ve been talking about for a while. I was inspired by the Patron program at The Roasting Room Lounge, a live music venue similar to us in Bluffton, SC. They created a program to recognize and reward their most loyal guests while encouraging financial support for their small live music venue. Details coming soon!
The Patio Project
Earlier this month we created a groovy urban oasis in an underutilized alley on the side of the building:
BEFORE
I always thought it would be a great space to create an outdoor patio, but I was nervous about the State Liquor Authority approving the plan. They like to see a door that leads directly to the outside area when there is alcohol involved, and I was going to have to send people out the front door to access the space. Luckily, I mentioned my idea to my friend Pete and he gave me some great suggestions on how to meet their guidelines. He’s owned bars with outdoor seating and told me exactly what they are looking for – and I was able to accomplish it with some simple DIY stanchions going from the front door to the patio.
AFTER
Once I had the approval, it was a matter of cleaning up the area, removing the storage container and adding furniture and privacy fencing.
My budget was almost non-existent, but I made it work by using the patio furniture and Edison lights from my house (they never made it out of the garage this year) and scoring an end of season clearance gazebo and a few umbrellas. It’s sunny out there in the middle of the day, but by happy hour the entire area is shaded and lovely. Have you checked it out yet? It’s pretty damn magical, especially at night with the Edison lights on and the candles lit.
Fall Menus
Our State Fair break conveniently falls at the end of the summer season, so while we’re on hiatus we’ll be working on creating some new menu items to add to the mix, updating our wine list and choosing our fall specialty cocktails. We’ve got some yummy stuff coming your way!
The Future of The 443
We are relieved to have the worst of the dreaded Summer Slump behind us. We knew it was coming, but the reality was another thing altogether.
June and July are tough for any bar or restaurant in CNY that isn’t located on the water or in a resort area, but it’s especially rough for a new business that hasn’t fully developed its core customer base. In talking to other bar and restaurant owners, I found that EVERYONE deals with it in the summer – even well-established places with dedicated regulars struggle. In fact, one restaurant owner who has been in business for 10+ years told us that while June 20 to the beginning of August is the slowest time for him every year, this year almost put him out of business – and that’s despite being located on a very busy main drag and having a lot of loyal regular customers.
I heard similar stories from every one of my friends who is the business.
Knowing that everyone else in town was slow too helped me realize that we aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong. We are in a continuous state of tweaking, fine-tuning, massaging and editing, BUT – that’s not the same as abandoning our vision and starting over. Ripping out the stage and hanging giant big screens would not have helped our cause one bit…because nobody is sitting inside bars in July watching sports. But when your cash flow is down to nothing, it’s nearly impossible not to question what you’re doing.
Thankfully, in August we started to see our hard work paying off.
We began seeing customers who hadn’t been in for months, and lots of new faces as well. People told us they have been hearing great things about us and wanted to check us out. Friends old and new are enjoying the patio. Rock Bingo Music Trivia has become a fun regular edition to our calendar and last week our Acoustic Open Mic was back up to spring attendance levels. Our last couple weeks of live music shows have gone really well, including a touring act with almost no existing fan base in Syracuse.
Our people are finding us. The 443 is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s okay…we have a loyal tribe and it’s growing. We’re not out of the woods yet by any stretch, but I am more optimistic about our future than I have been in months.
See you soon!
