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A place to ‘sit and hang out for a while’- Plainfield owners ready to open new Oswego cocktail lounge · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: A place to sit and hang out for a while.
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  Speaker 1: Plainfield owners ready to open new Oswego cocktail lounge. Written
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  Speaker 1: by Eric Shelkoff, This article is being read by an
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  Speaker 1: automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Plainfield couple Dan
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  Speaker 1: and Amy Thomas hope that people who walk into their
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  Speaker 1: Bay fifty four cocktail lounge in downtown Oswego feel right
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  Speaker 1: at home. We want to be that come as you
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  Speaker 1: are place. Dan Thomas said, there's no dress code. We
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  Speaker 1: want to create a cozy, warm space. Bay fifty four
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  Speaker 1: is set to open this month in the space at
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  Speaker 1: fifty seven Main Street in downtown Oswego that formerly housed
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  Speaker 1: the bike Rack as we Go. Citing a lack of staff,
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  Speaker 1: the Bike Rack Oswego in twenty twenty five closed its doors.
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  Speaker 1: The Honeyman family, who owned the Saint Charles base the
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  Speaker 1: bike Rack had occupied the space since twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Bay fifty four is set to open its doors later
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  Speaker 1: this month. July twenty second and twenty three are going
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  Speaker 1: to be kind soft opening nights, and then our goal
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  Speaker 1: is to hopefully do a ribbon cutting on July twenty
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  Speaker 1: fourth and then have that be our big grand opening
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  Speaker 1: dan Thomas said the couple had looked at several locations
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  Speaker 1: before deciding that the space would be the perfect location
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  Speaker 1: for their business, a location that one time housed a
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  Speaker 1: fire station that opened in nineteen fifty four. It was
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  Speaker 1: probably never meant to be a bar, dan Thomas said,
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  Speaker 1: but we found a way to kind of preserve the
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  Speaker 1: history of it through the name and to do something
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  Speaker 1: cool with it. While they have been working on the project,
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  Speaker 1: they have met a few Oswego firefighters. They are stopping
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  Speaker 1: by saying hi and walking through the building and telling
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  Speaker 1: us stories about what this space was and what it
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  Speaker 1: has become. He said. They also seem excited about what
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  Speaker 1: we are doing with the building and to be breathing
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  Speaker 1: life into it. The couple also owns The Lewis Cocktail
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  Speaker 1: Lounge in downtown Saint Charles. The Lewis refers to doctor
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  Speaker 1: James K. Lewis, the first mayor of Saint Charles. Dan
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  Speaker 1: Thomas started as the general manager at the Lewis. The
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  Speaker 1: project to transform the space into a cocktail lounge is
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  Speaker 1: helping the couple to become part of the downtown community.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like we just continue to meet people in
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  Speaker 1: such a good way. Dan Thomas said, the family who
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  Speaker 1: owns my sister's Little Donut shop have brought us dontuts
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  Speaker 1: in the morning when we are working outside. Mike at
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  Speaker 1: the Fox Valley Winery has been amazing to work with
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  Speaker 1: and to be neighbors with us. It's been really fun
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  Speaker 1: to be able to bring a new concept of something
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  Speaker 1: that's not in oswego and have the reception that has
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  Speaker 1: come along with it. He thinks Bay fifty four will
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  Speaker 1: compliment other businesses in the downtowns such as Fox Valley
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  Speaker 1: Winery and the Nash Vegas Saloon. The more people we
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  Speaker 1: can bring to downtown aswego, it becomes better for everyone.
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  Speaker 1: Dan Thomas said. The homemade bar will likely catch people's
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  Speaker 1: attention as they walk into Bay fifty four. We did
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  Speaker 1: this one hundred percent ourselves, dan Thomas said. It's butcher
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  Speaker 1: block that we sanded and then finished, and we installed
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  Speaker 1: all of it ourselves. We have probably done ninety percent
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  Speaker 1: of the work in here ourselves. Amy Thomas was the
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  Speaker 1: one who designed the cocktail lounge. That included picking out
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  Speaker 1: the color scheme for the lounge. We really wanted to
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  Speaker 1: do some deeper colors and create something that was comforting
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  Speaker 1: she said, we wanted to create a classic cocktail lounge
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  Speaker 1: look someplace where you would want to sit and hang
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  Speaker 1: out for a while. Bay fifty four will offer a
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  Speaker 1: variety of cocktails, including homemade cocktails. We will have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of your classic cocktails, like an old fashion in Manhattan,
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  Speaker 1: things that people know, Dan Thomas said. We will be
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  Speaker 1: taking some of those classics and putting our own spin
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  Speaker 1: on them, and then we'll have a selection of probably
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  Speaker 1: about fifteen signature cocktails that have been created either by
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  Speaker 1: myself or our team at the Lewis that we've used
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  Speaker 1: through the years. Just like the Lewis, Outside food will
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  Speaker 1: be allowed at Bay fifty four, including from restaurants in
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  Speaker 1: downtown oswego right now, we're just going to have bar
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  Speaker 1: snacks like peanuts, he said. If people do want to
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  Speaker 1: hang out here and want something to eat, they can
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  Speaker 1: bring in outside food and support local businesses. Our goal
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  Speaker 1: is to communicate with some of the restaurants in the
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  Speaker 1: downtown and get their menus here if they have online
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  Speaker 1: ordering and delivery services. More information is available by going
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  Speaker 1: to Bay fifty four's website Bay five four dot com.