Kennealy's Pub

What things do you have planned, what promotions?

I don’t want to talk about that stuff. It’s all bullshit. No really, the movie stuff will be Monday’s. Come, sit, smoke, eat, drink, maybe get somebody to wait on them or they can go to the bar. Tuesday’s, an open mic, people really laying their souls bare. Maybe there’ll be some moments. this will be the place where we won’t be afraid to pull you off the stage if you’ve been up there too long. Just because there’s only three people here, doesn’t mean they get to play all night. You get your slot and that’s it. Maybe I don’t want to listen to you all night. I want the kind of open mic were even people who’ve only rehearsed in front of the mirror can play. We hope to have a really authentic night, where people can come and not feel stupid, if there really honest. Poetry, any kind of spoken word would be cool.
My dad used to call it “meller drammer’. It’s an actual term I believe. Wednesday night, we hope to develop a real Jazz Night. Nothing else is popping into my head right now. We won’t do a Darts Night, this won’t be a Sports Bar. Thursday is relaxation night. Just listening to the Jukebox. Good selection, I love the local original, and New Orleans original. Also the Irish Brigade. Friday and Saturday, the live music. We have Michael Schearer. We’re hoping to have New Patrons of Husbandry, One Fell Swoop, and I’d like to get New World Spirits- I’d love to hear them acoustically. I think it would be excellent. I bet it would be so powerful. One of my favorite things Andy Schmidt used to do, when they were the Choice, he had is acoustic guitar and he would run it through his distortion pedal and play distorted acoustic and it was cool. That was back when he was just a guitar player and he thought he couldn’t sing. What was the question again?

Any special events coming up?

Oh, the Scottish thing. I forget normal people might be interested in something like that. April 6, 1998 at 8pm we’ll have what’s called Tartan Day. It’s a party that started by Scottish group of guys here in St. Louis, every couple of months they get their bagpipes out and put their kilts on and raise hell and play a lot of sing alongs. Alec Southerland is in this group, he and his wife, and they’re great people, so we offered to do this, well we begged, and said please come, we’d love to have you here in your skirts. We’re open and it’ll be here. Scottish folk songs and malt whiskey, Scottish country dancing, great food (which they’ll be bringing). Celebrating the Scottish-American connection.

Anything else?

I learned something already from Mardi Gras and St. Pat’s, for a small business, advertising is smart, promotions are bullshit. To try to promote something in the midst of a big party, drink specials, whatever, it’s crap. Our best advertisement was like GET OUT magazine with our name and phone number. We got more calls from that than anything hung in this room here. I got screwed over by a sales rep. I got screwed by a Liquor Rep. so I don’t want to hang banners or crap like that in here. This is a Scotch-Irish pub, we have the Scottish flag and the Irish flag painted on the railing, so we’ll not have that other stuff in here.

Oh, I hadn’t seen that.

Stop the tape, go look. (Tape back on) Okay, what was the question?

You also mentioned another group?

Every other Friday, Patty Go Easy, April 3rd and on the 24th. I’m trying to get somebody fresh here. I’d like to have eight different acts rotate in and out. So if you know anyone who could pull off a semi-fucking professional night of music.... let me know.

Who else?

There’s this guy, like a one man band he plays alone, with recorded stuff and like he plays six instruments at once (laughs). No really, he’s very good and it’s this Thursday, his name is Stuart Johnson and he’s got this
Leon Redbone kind of voice, this authentic mature voice and he plays guitar really jazzy. And he sings stuff like ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’, and even if it’s just background music, he’s great. What was the question, again?

What do feel attracts people to Kennealy’s?

What keeps them here? What gets them here? Hmm. Jim Hollaran (owner of McGurk’s) said it’s more like an Irish Pub than anything he’s seen and that’s a huge compliment. A pub needs that gentle, walk in feeling. Simple food, that’s what pubs were in the old days. If you wanted to eat, you had whatever the matron of the place cooked that day. we wanted someplace where you could have a Guiness on draft and not pay $4.75 for it. We could hang out with our friends, we could work with our friends, and that’s what
we got, what we made. That’s a pub to me - family. If you don’t like it, you know, get the fuck out.

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