Latest / Kvetch & Release / Last Call for Phog Lounge downtown set for Boxing Day pre-Erie Street move

Transcript

Last Call for Phog Lounge downtown set for Boxing Day pre-Erie Street move · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Things change. Time marches forward. We can't go backwards. As
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: much as we try to, we can even we try
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to capture a moment and put it into a bottle.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: But sometimes they pass, So they all pass. Not sometimes
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: it's a constant occurrence. And I guess something that is changing.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Something that is passing is the location of fog Lounge.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We've talked about it here on the show before. We
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: know that they have set their sights to Erie Street.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: But now we have a definitive date of the closure
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: of the down Town iteration of fog Lounge. December twenty sixth,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Boxing day of twenty twenty four will be the last
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: day of business for fog Lounge down Town. Joining me
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: right now to discuss is the owner of fog Lounge
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: joining me on the phone, Tom Lusher. Tom, how you
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: doing it?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It's always nice to wake up to talk to you.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: You're not the first person to put it that way, Tom,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me. Hey, so I saw this
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: post that you put up last night, and of course
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you've only had a couple hours of sleep here because
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: last call comes early, as does cleaning the place. But
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: are you getting bittersweet that there's only x amount of
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: last calls and Downtown Fog lounge cleanings that there's going to.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Be Yeah, of course. I mean, like I've described in
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: previous conversations, there's something about downtown that's still very important
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: to me. You know, namely a business called Meteor, which
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: is another music venue and it's fabulous and does great
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: when there show's there, but Fog is across the street.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: So the ability to do things in partnership, especially in
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: partnership with craft Heads, which is where a lot of
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: people remember Aardvarks being located. We have this partnership with
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: all these little venues that welcome the weird windsor's weird
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and having those having that little super group broken up
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: is a sad reality. And I mean, I'm always looking
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: at ways to survive and have my business do well
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and benefit those artists and those weirdos and the people
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that I find a kinship with. So that's why we
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: had to move. Someone buys your property and the writings
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: on the wall, you either sit there and have the
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: rug taken out from you or you make you make plans.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: You were pretty well aware that this would happen when
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the conversations first started happening, or darting craft heads. I
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: remember you and I had a conversation off air and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you had said, well, writing's on the wall over and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: done with, I give us you know X amount of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: months left. Did it all happen as quick as you expected?
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, it seems very fast.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So yeah, because you know, you can't predict what's going
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to happen. When the parking lot attendant says, hey, what
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: do you think about the new owners, and you're like,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: what are you talking about? So that was a very
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: clear indication of a lack of foresight respect. So it's
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: just like, okay, well we are not on the menu
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: for whoever owns this property in the future. And people
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: don't buy swaps of land to keep crumbling buildings on them.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: They well, that's not true downtown, but I would say
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: that they You have just described all building there.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you just described the absentee landlord business scenario for
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Windsor for the past twenty years. But yeah, maybe things
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: are changing.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: The thing is the company that bought it, they have
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: a track record of building larger buildings and developing and
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: making that happen. So I mean the idea if you
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: buy property like that, what is supposed to happen is
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: that you develop it. We just we have most of
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: downtown purchased being undeveloped, and then we have business associations
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: supporting or defending these people while they kill the downtown.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: And that's I mean, that's the sad thing. I still
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: have kinship with the other business owners down there, whether
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I've met them or not, and it's heartbreaking the direction
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: it's going. And by the way, like the downtown plan
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: that was announced months ago, these are all wonderful things
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: to help with the homelessness and the addiction and the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: mental health crisis happening down there. But that's not the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: reason downtown isn't thriving. We've talked about this before. It's
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the fact that you got landlords that don't want tenants.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Because if you have good, good draw you have things
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: people want to do, they will crawl through sludge to
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: get there and participate. It will not matter if there
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: are unsavory around, they will come. But right now it's
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: this giant spaces between businesses, between anchor businesses, and that's
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the problem.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we know what the issue is, we
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: know what the solution would be as well, but I
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: guess those aren't in the cards. You've set your sites
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: though to Erie Street and you're going to be moving
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: right close to Winsor Eats.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I'm so excited to have something new,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: like breathe some new life into it because of the
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: way things have been going downtowns. But it's craft Heads
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: that you know has to be credited because those guys
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: came to me, I don't know how many months ago
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: and just said we're leaving downtown. Our rent got tripled,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, wait a minute. The people who owned
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: your building own my building, so what I thought was
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: going to happen is most definitely going to happen. And
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I said I wish you had space near where you're moving,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: and they're like, how about next door? And I just
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: said done. In that moment, I didn't even need another conversation.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I knew that that was the right thing to do.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: So Windsor Eats Adriano is this powerhouse of tourism know how,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and if anyone who isn't aware, windsor e started as
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: like a website that was promoting restaurants and bars, people
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: doing exceptional things, but they were doing it through an
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: online presence and it was like a school for people
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: who didn't know where to go eat and a promotional powerhouse.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: And then they got really smart and said, what if
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: we had our own bricks and mortar and we could
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: have our enormous bike rides and events end at our place.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: And now it's just developed into this food truck extravaganza
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: with drinks and events NonStop. Like I see what they're doing,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: and I know how hard they're working.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, well, I can't wait until fog craft Heads and
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Windsor Eats launches a flight club and you just have
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to stumble across the aisle pretty much to sit down
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: in the other seat there because you guys are so close.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: But talking about Fog Lounge and it's moved to Erie Street,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: right into the area there with Windsor Eats. We've got
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a last date of business for the downtown Fog Lounge
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: location December twenty sixth. Hey, Tom, before we go to
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Adriano here, who's on the line. I guess do you
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: have a concern that everyone's just going to show up
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: on December twenty sixth and miss out on enjoying fog
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: downtown one more time?
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Of course I told people I think if anyone
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: you ever see this in any capacity with a business
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: that has a closing day, pick a day that isn't
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: that day, and if you have you know, some reason
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: to be there, or some nostalgias, something to remember the
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: conversation you want to have with this friend, your best
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: friend that you met there. Pick a different day, Make
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: a time that is before a day where we have
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: to follow all the rules and do everything you need
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: to do, so we can't just jam people in there.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: You have to follow the rules, so there's only going
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: to be room for sixty people at any given time
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: on that day. So I always I've been telling people
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Piccaday in November, Piccaday, you have a for a long
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: weekend or something, and come visit and have one last
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: look around.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: You're not shutting down the business, which is why you
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: can't just go and violate fire code because they won't
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: be able to find you afterwards. You're still going to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: be operating. You got to keep these people happy still.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: But hey, Adriano chotally joins me right now in studio.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I got to imagine, Adriana, you're pretty excited to have
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: you know, not just craft heads, but also fog Lounge coming,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: creating this new little district there.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm on cloud nine. I mean, I feel bad.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Clum constantly messaging Tom and Brian and Jason from craft
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: Heads asking so what's the progress, what's happening. But we
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: are super excited to be getting neighbors that are of
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: pretty much the same mindset and understand the value of
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: working together and doing fun and creative things that are
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: are benefiting the people of the city and visitors coming in.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Not that I don't think people that are visiting Spago
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: shouldn't come to hang out at windsor Eats, but I
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: don't think that that's necessarily the client tell that. You know,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: it would be coming down on a regular basis. But
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: if you have Fog Lounge right there, if you have
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: craft Heads right there, you're gonna have regulars that go
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: to those places. You're gonna have people that are popping
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: in to get stuff from the bottle shop. You're gonna
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: have foot traffic. Absolutely, you said to me off air,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited that we're not gonna be an island anymore.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, one hundred percent. I mean, because right now we
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: kind of are everyone Everyone views Eerie Street or via
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Italia as kind of Howard to parent and just what's
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: in there, and even for the most part, anything west
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: of Spago's is kind of forgotten, except in eCos Nicos
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: has done an amazing job now at the corner of
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: Howard and Erie Street, so we don't necessarily get that
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: foot traffic that the restaurants on on Erie Street get
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: and we're just all by ourselves over there. So now
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: having you know, having fog and craft heads comes, I
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: look at it. It's an amazing thing. It's going to be.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: It's gonna be a great little neighborhood. It really, it
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: really truly is.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, I think it's gonna be a lot
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of fun having you know, the different types of businesses.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: But you're all, as you said, in that same mindset,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I could see a night where you have all three
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: businesses just absolutely packed, Tom, and I picture something happening
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: on Erie Street that I've never really seen before. I
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: could see a mass exodus at two o'clock of a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: couple hundred people spilling into well, probably more than a
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: couple hundred people, but spilling into the streets and heading home,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: creating a whole new atmosphere.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I hope that we are accepted in
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: the way that that kind of a situation would happen.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: When I opened Downtown, I was a kid and we
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: were moving into a place that was a pre existing
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: place very similar to ours, and it was beloved, and
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: that's a huge part of our success. I never said
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: anything but that. And this is going to be similar
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: the fact that you know, I've known Adria Allad for
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: a long time. We've worked together on events. I've been
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: a supporter of his and an admirer of his work ethic.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: And if he's going to accept us and his crowd
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: is going to be like, oh, these Downtown numbskulls are
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: here now, like you never know. You have to hope
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: that the street and the business Association and the other
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: businesses aren't like, oh no, these Neanderthals are kind of
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: turned things upside down. I just hope they are welcoming
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: because we're just trying to bring more more sense of
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: community and connection and collaboration, which is what we've been
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: doing for a while on Downtown.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I made the joke about the flight
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: club and how quick it would be to get from
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: one place to the next, But do you I imagine
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: that you guys are having conversations about what does collaboration
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: actually look like in this scenario right next.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Door to each other. Answer that, yeah, he's honest all
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Like I mentioned, I'm literally messaging them on an almost dale.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: I try to give him a little bit a piece
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: in between messages, but it's to start those conversations and
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: being like, how can we hit the ground running for
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: you guys, even maybe even before they open up to
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: the public. What can we do to start collaborating and
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: doing some fun things and getting people, you know, more
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: people realizing and noticing that two great businesses that have
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: been a staple in downtown for years are now coming
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: into this new neighborhood and being able to get new
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: people's eyes or even old customers eyes on their new location. So,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's there's so many things that can be done,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: and I feel bad just throw one at us right now, well,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: I mean one, and I'm sorry Tom for doing this,
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: but I mean Tom was Tom. Tom was known years ago.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: He did a couple of great festivals called fog Fest,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: and he has kind of a branch off of fog
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Fest called Froggerfest. I believe it is Tom correct, and
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: that's coming up, I want to say, next week. And
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: so that's something that can be done now with three
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: different venues or an outside in an outdoor space to
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: kind of bring back, bring back something old that people
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: loved and and and you know, kind of reimagine it.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: But I mean that's just brainstorming, throwing things out there.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: But like that's just just one idea. I mean, Fog
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: is known across the country and even by a lot
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: of musicians from the United States for being a great
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: live music venue. And so like for for the Eerie
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Street neighborhood. Everyone knows it for restaurants, But now what
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: can you do after you know you're going out to eat?
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: Now you can go to a great live.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Music venue too. So just for physical footprint areas, people
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: can understand it if they know where you're located at
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Windsor Eats, is Tom is the location that you're at?
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Just across the alley there.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, do well east of Windsor Eats like we are.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: You don't have to cross the street. You just have
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: to walk across the alley, some grass, a very small
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: parking lot, and then there we are.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: We can literally wave to each other and talk to
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: each other while we're each at our front doors.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and craft, heeads, is like we have an umbilical
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: door between the two bars, like you can go from
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: our place to his place their place through one door.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: And also there's gonna be multiple connections to their business,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: so like we are separate businesses, but we are joined.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna be running out of beer. You're attached
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: to the brewer exactly, worst case, worst case scenario. You
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: can get just one big well, I guess, I don't know.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Are you gonna have a hose hooked up directly into
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the vats that that that would be perfect, like just
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: you know, for ease of access sake. It's it's really
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: cool to hear the collaborative nature because some people like Adriano,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you're being your background of course with windsor eats and
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: about showcasing the community another business. Hearing that two competing businesses,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: well established businesses coming in on their footprint, almost someone
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: might get upset about that and go, no, you're gonna
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: be taken away from me. You aren't, like you're looking
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: at me like a deer in headlights right now, dumbfounder Adriano,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: you should see this just glazed over Tucker Carlson type
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: eyes right now, but like you're not at all concerned worried,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: like you want this, Oh, you're hungry for it.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: My sister and I absolutely love the fact that they're
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: that they're coming there, and we look at it as
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: we're three independent businesses, each with three fairly different I
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: intell and offerings as well, but ones that compliment each
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: other extremely extremely well. Because even ourselves you're mentioning at
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: two o'clock doors open, you know, the streets flood with people,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: but we've never planned on being open late. So I'm
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: excited of the fact that if we do have a crowd,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: say at ten o'clock eleven o'clock, when we close down,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: now those people can literally just walk across the alley
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: right to craft Heads and fog and enjoy the night.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: And more importantly, after work, now I can just walk
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: on over and be able to actually enjoy fog for
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: the first time in a long time. I don't think
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: i've been there since the doors open up on our space,
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: as I've been too busy and then just drive home.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Well, it's something that we're going to keep our eyes on.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I'm incredibly happy that all of you guys are so
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: excited to be working together. It's gonna be great for
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: all of your patrons respectively, but hey, even people like me.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: As you said, Adriana, you've got your own selfish motivations.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I've got mine as well. To Lucier owner fog Lounge
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Meteor Adriano chotally co owner over at Windsor Eats, thank
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you so much for both of your time.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you,