We’ve reached the 5-month mark here at 443…and my husband and I still like each other – whoo-hooooooo!
Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes at 443:
Rock Bingo Music Trivia
We’ve been exploring some different programming ideas for the cafe, and we’re excited to introduce the launch of Rock Bingo Music Trivia, a friendly pop culture battle of wits hosted by Bobby at the DJ Company.
We have been closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but we’ll be open from 4pm-10pm on Tuesdays beginning June 25, one week from today.
Here’s how it works: each guest receives a Bingo Card with different artists on it. The DJ plays 20-second song clips. If you can name the artist and the artist is on your Bingo Board, you get to mark the spot. The first player with 5 in a row hits BINGO and wins the round.
31 rotating categories include “We Love the 80’s”, “90’s MixTapes”, “Classic Rock” and “Weird Al Yankovich”. Flex your music muscles, check out our special “Rock-tails” drink menu and compete for weekly prizes. Free to play.
Most of our guests are really into music, so Rock Bingo Music Trivia should be just the fun and quirky addition our calendar needs.
We are looking at other options that don’t involve live music to add to the mix in the next few months. Stay tuned!
Gift Cards
Speaking of prizes…we finally ordered gift cards! The prizes for the Rock Bingo Music Trivia are gift cards – which we don’t have yet. I’ve been dragging my feet on getting them ordered – because, you know, I’m not busy or anything – and they should be here by next week.
Next time you need to buy a gift for someone special, grab a gift card for 443. I may even put my gift basket skills acquired from another life to use and create some gift packs.
Pre-Show Happy Hour and Show Start Times
One of the challenging things about our ticketed shows is trying to take good care of 50-90 people coming in the bar at once. Our bar isn’t set up for more than 2 bartenders, so adding more staff isn’t an option. As we were scrambling to handle the crowd for Loren Barrigar’s show on Saturday, it dawned on me that we should give ticket holders an incentive to arrive early, and the Pre-Show Happy Hour was born.
Our regular Wine & Whiskey happy hour currently runs on weekdays from 4-6pm. You get $2 off any glass of wine, whiskey (including bourbon, scotch whiskey, rye or Irish whiskey) or well drink, plus $2 off our popular charcuterie board for two. It’s a good excuse to try out our pricier whiskey and wine options, or just get a great deal on a basic well drink ($3!!) or an everyday wine. I’ll be adding the happy hour to Saturday and Sunday shows moving forward, and emphasizing the existing specials for weekday shows.
I was filling my husband in on this “brainstorm”, and he pointed out that I have a “Doors” time listed for all our ticketed events when in reality our doors are open all day. We are still seeing lots of new faces at every show, so our new friends probably think they have no choice but to arrive right before start time.
We’re doing a good job of shooting ourselves in the foot, wouldn’t you say?
On a more serious note, we seem to be approaching a crossroads.
New friends stop in for coffee every day and comment on how different our place is from anywhere else in town, and tell us how much they love what we’re doing.
Seasoned road warrior artists who play in hundreds of venues a year have commented on what a special place we have created.
We’ve enjoyed some incredible performances and evenings where the artist and audience shared moments of transcendence, the entire room connected on a spiritual level to the music and storytelling and each other for a few moments in time.
Moments that have moved me to tears.
We had our first marriage proposal at the cafe, during a recent performance by the talented and sweet Griffin House.
We hosted Davis Rogan from New Orleans and a room full of appreciative guests drank Sazerac cocktails and grooved to Rogan’s NOLA style rhythm and blues piano.
Jeffrey Gaines drove up from Philly and delivered a standout performance to a packed room that was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
Local favorites Frenay & Lenin put on a rare, all original set to an enthusiastic crowd and Tom Kenny jumped on stage and closed out the show.
We had Sponge Bob Square Pants on our stage!!!!
Photo by Mike Donohue
The “powerful, profane, and hilarious one-man wrecking crew known as Hamell on Trial” booked a last minute show and CRUSHED it.
Photo and Hamell bio courtesy of Brian Cornish
When it works the way it’s supposed to, this place is freaking magic.
But…not everything is going according to plan.
The Future of the Coffeehouse/Cafe
We thought offering quality coffee that isn’t readily available all over town in a funky and comfortable environment with reeeeaaaaaaalllllly easy parking would be pretty straightforward…and that has not been the case.
We don’t have meters on Burnet Ave, and you can park on both sides of the road – no odd/even parking to figure out, and during the day you can usually park right outside the front door or directly across the street. We thought we might capture some of the folks driving from Eastwood on Burnet Ave to work downtown, especially with parking for downtown coffee shops being so tricky and the drive-thru line at the Dunkin’ around the corner snaking around the building.
While we do have a dedicated assortment of regulars who pop in for coffee or lunch and schedule their meetings at 443, it’s been frustratingly difficult to develop this part of the business.
We recently said a sad goodbye to our daytime bartender/barista Rachel due to the lack of consistent day business. After a frank discussion about where we are with sales along with increasing pressure from our landlord to get our rent up to market rate, she saw the writing on the wall and found a position with a new downtown restaurant. We likely would have been forced to let her go, plus she just wasn’t making enough money – despite the higher hourly wage we were paying her. We were lucky to keep her as long as we did and we wish her the best of luck.
Pretty soon we’re going to have some decisions to make. While the evening business and ticketed shows are still super-tricky, the day business is a much bigger problem. Should we eliminate our early morning hours and open at 10am? Or eliminate day hours completely and open at 4pm to focus on the live music and bar business? Can we hold out until a decision is made on the Community Grid issue, which will definitely impact the traffic patterns around our building?
Because, holy cow – it’s been debated for literally YEARS.
I have written here before about our concern that we are trying to sell something there isn’t a market for, and that just might be the case for the coffeehouse/cafe side of the business. I’ll be amping up my marketing efforts for the next couple of months, but we will likely have to make a decision by the end of summer on how we are going to move forward.
We appreciate the encouragement of everyone in the community and we are working our asses off to make 443 the very best little live music venue/coffee house/bar it can be.
If you believe in what we are doing and want to support, stop by for a cup of coffee (it’s really good!) or a cocktail. Schedule a meeting in one of our living room areas (we’re happy to reserve them), or buy tickets to a show. Sharing our stuff on social media is super awesome, but grabbing a friend and visiting us in person is even better.
See you soon!
