Kennealy's Pub

Are you glad you did it?

It was a great learning experience. I got to re-associate myself with some old friends and met some really great new ones, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Plus, this place looks really great. I heard somebody say ‘you can’t get anywhere on good intentions alone’, you know? just because you're cool, doesn’t get you shit. Cool doesn’t get you people. You can be cool as hell and people won’t know you’re there.

So these are things I'm learning. It’s great, it’s good for me, it’s stretching my brain and maybe, giving me ideas about what I want to do for the rest of my life. Incorporating Louisiana, New Orleans, and the new baby into my life. Trying to find good places for all those, and places I can be happy too. I’ve had a lot of
dreams in the past few months.

Dreams are were reality starts.

That’s what I believe. Dreamers are the ones that last the longest, and I’m definitely a dreamer.

When you opened this place, was it out of want for a certain type
of venue?

Actually yes,  from the get go, when it was a cheap project, I rationalized that we’d need $3,000 a month. I said to Tim we’d only need 150 people come in and spend $20 a month, and he realized how little $3,000 is. So drink prices are really cheap, and hopefully people want to come here.

People like that, they want to hang out here.

Well I hope so, it’s been kind of slow, but I don’t know. There’s been the weather and aftermath of St. Pat’s, or maybe a combination of it all. But I’ve hard really good things. People have complained about particulars, but overall they like the bar. You asked if this was what I envisioned and it definitely was not this. This came after a year, it’s still very simple, very raw. But much more complex than it would have been. In the initial idea, the building would have been kept the same, we would have painted, probably the same color The color, Theater Red, was my plan. But it wasn't going to look like this, really. And I don’t regret being here this long, definately, because it turned out that good. The best lesson I learned was the whole ‘patience is a virtue thing’. It’s very hard core. Now I know if you can be patient, you can be anything. It gives you all sots of strength in other things. It's a sweet place to be, a goal, you know?

(Editor’s Note: Amazingly at this point on the t.v. in the background the “Cheers” theme song begins.)

How long, exactly did it take?

A year and eight days. All the running around. There’s a very helpful thing at City Hall. it’s the Business Assistance Center, or something like that. This woman named Lynette, you go up there telling them what you want to do, and they give you these To Do lists. City, State, and Federal things you need to do. Very informative and free.

What did inspire the decor?

Ryan was my biggest inspiration. Really, I didn't realize what it was until we were in New Orleans. We just went to our favorite places: Checkpoint Charlie’s and Dragon’s Den. These places I had been so many times. Checkpoint Charlie’s; cooking right behind the bar, and the music right there, and one person does the whole thing. I wanted to be bartending and hosting Open Mic Night all at the same time. Then Dragon’s Den, has that whole opium den thing. Low Tai tables and big cushions and pillows, and you’d drink saki and watch Dave Sharp who was the guitar player for the Alarm. The place was low lit. then there’s things like the
t.v.’s. I’m a media guy, a visual person and I like t.v.

It’s a great touch actually, because tonight we’re just sitting here relaxing..

As long as there’s not sports on it.

You have ‘South Park night’.

We’ll have movie nights, ‘cause we’ll pump it through the PA. Eventually we’ll have a video projector. A Sony bad mamma, jamma’ unit that Tim’s got our hooks in. About six foot screen, through the PA and on all the t.v.’s. Classics or even Stripes or Tommy Boy. You can come and chill out and have all the conveniences.

It is very relaxed, very comfortable.

That’s one thing we tried to do. We tried not to do anything that bugged us as employees at other places. It helped me design the layout at the bar, the two stations, the space behind the bar.

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