24 September 2022
Artwork Bar co-owner Andy Rodgers likes to compare the life-span of a bar to that of the dog — bars, such as dogs, typically don’t stay as long as humans tend to. “Bars live as long as dogs reside, you know, ” Rodgers stated. “It’s like… you know the bar running for seventeen or 18 years, this is a good run for a canine. Thirty is just insane, that it is unbelievable because it’s therefore out of the norm. ” Their longtime Vista watering gap is far from the norm — surviving 30 years of modify and growth as one of Columbia‘s oldest and weirdest pubs. Art Bar opened upon Sept. 18, 1992 once the art and entertainment community, the Vista, was in the infancy — back then, the particular arts district looked greater, according to Vista Guild Professional Director Abby Anderson. There was only a handful of businesses in the region, two of them being Artwork Bar and Motor Provide Company Bistro, two staples for the Vista. “Art Pub is something that the rest of Columbia doesn’t have, so it’s very special that we have it in the Windows vista, ” said Abby Anderson, the executive director from the Vista Guild. She known as Art Bar a “unique and funky thing that will celebrates what Columbia is definitely. “
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The original owners, Clark Ellefson and Jeff Helsley, attempted to open a spot that was as opposed to anything Columbia had noticed. They accomplished that objective — bartenders, regulars plus former employees said the particular bar is like no other within the city, with its quirky deb? cor, friendly staff plus come-as-you-are atmosphere. Thirty many years later, the eclectic club just off of Gervais Road draws anyone and everybody, according to bartenders and regulars. “Art Bar is an everyone bar, ” said Can Woodward, who’s been the bartender at the spot for ten years. “I truly do think that anybody can come in and be made welcome as long as they’re welcoming more. “The bar was main in Columbia at the time in order to openly and actively desired members of the LGBTQ local community — a move which has often gotten it baffled with being a gay pub, so much so that for years this won “Best Gay Bar” in Columbia in the Free of charge Times Best of Columbia honours.
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But it’s a label that will owners and staff delicately reject, in the same way they deny any other label for the pub. From being a spot for old, longstanding regulars to sketching more of a younger group in recent years, the bar will not fit into a box. And it is proud of that. “We did not want to be the live songs venue, or the dance membership or the gay bar. After all, we wanted to be the whole thing, ” Rodgers said. Getting “all of it” is usually showcased each night at Artwork Bar’s different events. Monday are Movie Mockery evening, where local comics “make the best of really poor movies. ” Tuesdays the particular bar hosts open microphone comedy. Wednesdays are the well-known karaoke night. Thursdays are usually trivia. Each weekend the particular bar hosts a range of reside music and DJs. The particular bar has made changes from the early days. When it first opened up, the bar was filled with a handful of beers together a microwave in precisely now a supply wardrobe for reheating bar foods. The bar now provides over 80 beers upon tap, including craft drinks that were unheard of in the earlier ’90s, and a kitchen system run by Steve Gibson. Bartenders used to have to not just run the bar, but additionally keep songs queued upward in the early days before Artwork Bar began bringing in reside music and DJs, during a period when there were few sites in the city for alternate, live music.
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“At that period, The Whig did not can be found, Transmission did not exist, Brand new Brookland wasn’t where really at now, ” Phill Blair said. Art Club was like the absolute place to go. inch Blair worked as a doorman at the spot in the earlier 2000s before working from, and going on to own, The particular Whig, a beloved jump bar at the corner associated with Gervais and Main. Whilst much of what Art Club has become — the unique plus welcoming staple just away Gervais — was deliberate, one aspect of the bar was not — the robots. The particular artsy spot is often known as “the robot bar, inch Rodgers said. The bar’s logo even features a plain and simple robot head outline. However the robot-mania came about on a impulse. “The crazy thing will be the robots didn’t come about till probably 10 or fifteen years after Art Pub had opened and it had been sheer luck and type of chance, ” Rodgers mentioned. Then co-owner Jeff Helsley found someone selling a small number of vintage robots. Helsley plus Ellefson purchased them, cleansed them up and they grew to become an instant hit among club patrons. “People loved all of them, ” Rodgers said. “I don’t think that anybody actually really imagined that it will be that popular. ” The particular robots and other artsy deb? cor, the familiar bartenders and the unpretentiousness of the place draws regulars in and it has kept them coming for many years. Kerry Johnston has been visiting the spot since it opened and today runs the social media for your bar. Johnston came to Columbia for college and mentioned Art Bar has always been a location that’s made special simply by its staff and their particular care for bar patrons. “I feel safe there, inch she said. “I realize that all of their patrons are looked after…. One of their biggest focal points is to keep people secure so you know, as a lady growing up in Columbia which was always a place I understood that I would be safe. “